ESA - Rosetta - Rosetta sees a living planet

About Rosetta

Rosetta at a glance Europe's comet chaser Why 'Rosetta'?

About the spacecraft

The Rosetta orbiter Orbiter: Instruments The Rosetta lander Lander: Instruments

About the journey

The long trek Debris of the Solar System: Asteroids Asteroid (2867) Steins: a portrait Life and survival in deep space Long-distance communication The Rosetta ground segment

About the arrival

Comets - an introduction Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko Comet rendezvous Giotto - ESA's first comet mission

Meet the team

Project Manager Project Scientist

Multimedia

VideoTalk 3D Flash 'model'Rosetta images Rosetta videos Rosetta Animations Rosetta wallpaper Life of a comet

Services

Frequently asked questions Comments

Article Images

Rosetta sees a living planet

13 November 2009

Back to article

Rosetta closes in on home for the last Earth swingby

Download:

HI-RES GIF (Size: 156 kb)

As Rosetta approached Earth, OSIRIS periodically imaged the Earth once every hour for 24 hours. The images from the green optical colour filter have been combined into a movie sequence. The images were taken beginning when Rosetta was 1.1 million km from Earth, until it came 320 000 km close.

Credits: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Back to article

illuminated crescent of Earth showing part of South America and

Download:

HI-RES PNG (Size: 623 kb)

The illuminated crescent of Earth showing part of South America and Antarctica. This OSIRIS image was acquired with the the narrow-angle camera from a distance of 350 000 km at 22:28 UTC last night. The resolution is 6.5 km/pixel.

Credits: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Back to article

ESA's Rosetta sees North America at night

Download:

HI-RES PNG (Size: 490 kb)

The lights of North American cities. Rosetta OSIRIS Imaging System's Narrow-Angle Camera image. The image was taken with a 10-s deep exposure at 05:44 CET. Some of the cities are clearly visible. Others like New York are covered by clouds, making the light diffuse.

Credits: ESA ©2009 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Back to article

Rosetta navigation camera image of Earth

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 214 kb)

A cloud-covered North America was captured at 14:03 UTC (15:03 CET), when Rosetta was at a distance of approximately 224 000 km from Earth's centre by Rosetta's navigation camera (navcam).

The navcam is used for precise determination of the orbit and optical visualisation. The output of the camera tells you where the centre of the object that is in the centre of the field of view is - it also gives physical parameters of the object.

The photos were taken to test the camera's operation with a large physical obejct. Previously, Steins was also imaged, but it is rather small (about 5 km across). Next year, the camera will be used to view Lutetia, which is much larger (about 95 km across). In the camera field of view, Lutetia shoudl appear about as large as the Earth looks in these images.

Credits: ESA

Rosetta Blog