After the flyby performed a few weeks ago, the Rosetta space probe moved away from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and was able to observe its increasing activity. In late February, from a distance between 80 and 100 km (from 50 to 52 miles) its Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) instrument took several photographs that ESA processed to make the best observations of the jets of steam and dust emitted by the comet.
Generally, the NAVCAM is used to support Navigation, as its name suggests. Sometimes, however, it’s used to provide context to the observations made at the same time with the ALICE instrument, an ultraviolet spectrograph. The photos taken in late February had this purpose.
The four images of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko put together by ESA to provide an idea of its activities used an exposure time of about 2 seconds. The Sun shone on the comet from behind Rosetta. The combination of these features resulted in a slight overexposure of some parts of the nucleus.
The activity of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is increasing with its approach to the Sun, is one of the most interesting elements of the Rosetta space probe’s mission. For this reason, these photographs were processed to highlight its coma rather than the details of its nucleus.
Many photographs of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were already taken over the months spent by the space probe Rosetta in its vicinity. The surface of the comet is now well known so currently the photographs taken by NAVCAM are definitely more interesting to examing its coma with the steam and dust emitted by the comet.
The different orientation of the nucleus of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in each image provides a good overall view of its activities. In the coming months, we can expect a growing interest from ESA scientists who will try to better understand the evolution of the comet as it approaches the Sun. From the Rosetta mission more and more spectacular photographs will come together with other information very interesting from a scientific perspective.
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