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Here’s looking at you: Final Rosetta photo shows rocky comet
Illustration of Rosetta and Philae at the comet (Photo By European Space Agency – Rosetta and Philae at comet, CC BY-SA 3.0-igo)
BERLIN — The European Space Agency says scientists have pieced together a final image of a comet’s surface taken by its Rosetta probe just before its mission ended in a slow-motion crash a year ago.
ESA guided Rosetta to the surface of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Sept. 30 last year, ending its 12-year
mission. Rosetta had previously sent a separate lander to the
surface and collected vast amounts of data.
The agency said Thursday that scientists have worked with the very last data Rosetta sent to piece together a final image of the touchdown site, showing details of the rocky surface.
Scientists decided to crash-land the probe on the comet because Rosetta’s solar panels wouldn’t have been able to collect enough energy as it flew away from the sun along 67P’s elliptical orbit.
