In the photo above, and also in the picture, which can be seen below, captures the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko, around which circled automatic interplanetary station “Rosetta” the European space Agency (ESA). The device was destroyed in a controlled collision with a comet in September 2016, but for the time spent in the orbit of the comet, the probe managed to take a lot of pictures of the studied object through its narrow-angle camera OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System).
The photos were received on June 1, 2016, and published only on March 22 this year. Based on those shots, the Twitter user with the nickname landru79 created GIF image.
Received animated picture it is possible to note three characteristic features. Located in the background of the stars belonging to, according to a senior scientific adviser to ESA, the constellation Canis major; the light strips that remain from the highly charged particles entering the camera lens, and look like falling snow; and, most likely, dust from the comet.
The spacecraft Rosetta was launched in 2004. In 2014, the probe reached the comet and landed on its surface (for the first time in history), a two-ton research the lander “Fily”. In General, the landing was successful, but the unit picometers the wrong places. The problem was that the “FILA” sat in the shade of a steep rock, where he failed to collect solar energy. In the end, the lander worked for only 60 hours, collecting information about the comet and sending these data to the Ground, until you run out of charge in his batteries, which were to gain new energy through solar panels.
But even with such a short scientific work, both devices have provided unprecedented information about the comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko. Lander found in the gases, which throws the comet organic compounds, but also managed to capture Mars from a distance of 1,000 kilometers, when the comet flew extremely close past our cosmic neighbor. The Orbiter, in turn, photographed the comet in all sorts of angles.
#photo of the day | “Snow” on the comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko
Nikolai Khizhnyak