The Rosetta spacecraft has reached its target comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The new image, taken from about 80 miles away, displays a number of features including: craters, boulders, and steep cliffs.
The mission was originally launched in 2004 and just reached the comet today. Rosetta will be "the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the Sun, and deploy a lander to its surface," the Rosetta site stated.
The craft includes a Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), an ultraviolet spectrometer dubbed Alice, and the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES). They are part of a suite of 11 science instruments aboard the Rosetta orbiter. NASA reported.
MIRO is capable of providing data on how gas and dust leave the center of the nucleus to form the coma (a bright pocket of gas around the nucleus that changes as the comet approaches the Sun) and tail; which are striking features of the comet. Looking at the surface temperature and other features could help researchers gain insight into how the comet tail evolves as it gets closer to the Sun.
Alice's job is to analyze the gases in the comet's coma. The instrument will also measure the rate at which the comet produces "water, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide," NASA reported.
ROSINA is the first instrument in space with a resolution high enough to distinguish between molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide, which both have the same mass. Pinpointing these molecules could help researchers understand more about the conditions under which the solar system was formed.
Rosetta was launched in March and 2004 and was reactivate on January of 2014 after spending a record 957 days in hibernation. The craft's immediate objectives are to look at the comet up close and prepare for a landing on the comet's nucleus in November.
