Rosetta

Rosetta keeps its distance from awakening comet

13 April 2015 Stephen Clark

Mission controllers are rethinking a series of close-up comet flybys planned for Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft after a haze of dust around the comet’s central nucleus led to navigation errors during a close encounter in late March.

Rosetta probe disoriented by comet dust

6 April 2015 Stephen Clark

Ground controllers are analyzing a fault aboard Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft after an encounter with comet dust confused the probe’s navigation system, leaving the robot explorer in a temporary safe mode and halting regular science operations.

OSIRIS detects water ice in the neck of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

16 March 2015 Astronomy Now

The Hapi region of 67P is located between the comet’s two lobes and has proven to be particularly active, displaying a bluish reflectivity spectrum in colour images captured with Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera. This strongly suggests that frozen water is mixed with the dust at the surface.

Rosetta begins listening for signs of life from comet lander

14 March 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is trying to contact the Philae landing probe for the first time since the robot fell silent after a bouncy landing on a comet in November.

Rosetta glimpses its own shadow on comet 67P

4 March 2015 Stephen Clark

The sharp-eyed science camera on Europe’s Rosetta comet orbiter caught a view of the probe’s fuzzy shadow when controllers guided the spacecraft just a few miles over its subject’s nucleus last month.

Rosetta closing in again on comet

25 February 2015 Astronomy Now

After a close up fly by of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on Valentine’s Day, Rosetta looped further away from the comet than it has been since arriving there and returned some dramatic new images.

Photos from Rosetta’s Valentine’s Day comet close-up

17 February 2015 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft — six months into its research mission at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko — made its closest flyby of the comet’s boulder-strewn nucleus Saturday, capturing new photos and measurements to help scientists unravel how the duck-shaped body is evolving on its orbit around the sun.