Rosetta flyby pictures
- Wed Nov 14 2007
- Astronomy
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You owe it to yourself to go check out awesome pictures from the Rosetta flyby.
Background: Rosetta is an interplanetary craft whose mission is to rendezvous with a comet named Comet 67 P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko in 2014. This isn’t a standard “orbit and take pictures” rendezvous, as it includes landing on the comet! To get to 67P/C-G, Rosetta needs to make a lengthy trip around the Solar System, winging by Mars once and Earth three times. The first Earth gravity assist happened in 2005, and the Mars gravity assist happened in 2007. The second Earth gravity assist happened last night when Rosetta passed only 6000 kilometers from Earth!
Interesting note: on November 8 the Minor Planet Center issued a Minor Planet Electronic Circular about an object then known as 2007 VN84 that was going to have a very near approach to Earth on November 14, missing the Earth by about 6000 kilometers. Denis Denisenko put two and two together and realized that this “possible Earth impactor” was actually Rosetta, and the MPC issued a retraction.
Space: there’s lots of stuff flying around out there. :-)
