[meteorite-list] Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:12:42 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201412172212.sBHMCgaK024374_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4415

Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 17, 2014

The European Space Agency's orbiting Rosetta spacecraft is expected to
come within four miles (six kilometers) of the surface of comet
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in February of next year. The flyby will be
the closest the comet explorer will come during its prime mission.

"It is the earliest we could carry it out without impacting the vitally
important bound orbits that are currently being flown," said Matt Taylor,
the Rosetta project scientist from the European Space Research and Technology
Center, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. "As the comet becomes more and more
active, it will not be possible to get so close to the comet. So this
opportunity is very unique."

The low flyby will be an opportunity for Rosetta to obtain imagery with
a resolution of a few inches (tens of centimeters) per pixel. The imagery
is expected to provide information on the comet's porosity and albedo
(its reflectance). The flyby will also allow the study of the processes
by which cometary dust is accelerated by the cometary gas emission.

"Rosetta is providing us with a grandstand seat of the comet throughout
the next year. This flyby will put us track side -- it's going to be that
close," said Taylor.

The Rosetta orbiter deployed its Philae lander to one spot on the comet's
surface in November. Philae obtained the first images taken from a comet's
surface and will provide analysis of the comet's possible primordial composition.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from
the epoch when our sun and its planets formed. Rosetta will be the first
spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is
subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations
will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our
solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with
water, and perhaps even life.

Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its
member states and NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California,
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO instrument and hosts
its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute
(San Antonio and Boulder) developed the Rosetta orbiter's IES and Alice
instruments, and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES)
and Alan Stern (Alice).

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta


Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
v 011-31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int

2014-434
Received on Wed 17 Dec 2014 05:12:42 PM PST