The Navigation Camera (NavCam) instrument on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has captured close-up high-resolution images of the comet surface, revealing details never seen before.
Four-image mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comprising images taken on 14 February 2015 during the first dedicated close flyby; this image set was taken from a distance of 8.9 km. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.
On 14 February 2015, the Rosetta spacecraft passed within 6 km of the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the first dedicated close flyby of the mission.
The closest approach took place at 7:41 a.m. EST (4:41 a.m. PST, 12:41 p.m. GMT) over a region called Imhotep.
The images captured by NavCam during this close flyby provide stunning details of the contrasting terrains.
Particularly notable in the new images is the long, layered and fractured surface at the lower left.
Towards the center of the frame the faint outline of raised near-circular objects with smooth floors can be seen. Several angular blocks appear to jut out from beneath the surface.
Boulders, ranging in size from a few meters to a few tens of meters, lie scattered across the whole surface of the comet.
Here, in the Imhotep region, one can see boulder Cheops towards the top center of the mosaic.
During the flyby, Rosetta passed through ‘zero phase’ angle – i.e. with the Sun exactly behind the spacecraft – offering extremely good illumination conditions.
Flybys like this allow Rosetta’s instruments to sample the innermost parts of the comet’s atmosphere (coma) to better understand the connection between the source of the observed activity and the wider coma.
