BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Rosetta has arrived!!!

This image, based on high res pictures of Rosetta's comet, looks like a sculpture you might see in an art gallery. However no one has painted the comet, only the image. This is a preliminary map of the comet with different types of terrain shown in different colors. Scientists will soon have to make a decision about where - and how - to land Philae.

"J" marks the spot. ESA has chosen a landing site for Philae, the Rosetta mission's lander. The chosen site is on the "head" of the comet. There's a secondary back-up site on the other site of Comet Churyamov-Gersaimenko.

The Rosetta comet mission has been one of the most demanding and exciting space missions ever. After a 10-year journey to Comet 67P, it's ready to send the lander Philae to the surface on November 12. Here's movie-type preview of the short film that will be coming out soon about the landing. (Credit: ESA / Music: Omega by Tim McMorris)

Judy Schmidt has made an amusing graphic featuring Rosetta's comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. She compares its size with a number of other objects, e.g., Central Park in New York (which is smaller) and the Martian moon Deimos (which is larger) and the Death Star from Star Wars which would be a LOT bigger, if it existed. Here is Small Bodies.

Ambition: a 6-minute film telling the Rosetta story as a sci fi movie. Great visuals and a good sense of why and how we seek knowledge. Very enjoyable. And, of course, the next installment of Rosetta's story happens live on November 12th when it's time for the Philae lander to meet the comet.

Ambition