During the past weekend, ESA’s space probe Rosetta has taken a new flyby about 14 kilometers (about 8.6 miles) away from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This means that it hasnt come as close as in February, however, the comet’s increasing activity caused some problems in Rosetta. Among the consequences, it had serious difficulties in communicating with ESA’s mission control.
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.
The SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) space probe has the primary purpose of keeping an eye on the Sun but when a comet passes close to our star is also useful to track its trajectory. Last week, SOHO identified a new comet because passing near the Sun it’s become bright enough to be detected.
This comet was originally called SOHO-2875 because in the course of over 19 years of mission in a collaboration between ESA and NASA this is the 2875th comet identified by the SOHO space probe. Subsequently officially named C/2015 D1 (SOHO), it survived a flyby with the Sun and may also be visible from Earth in the coming weeks.
Last Saturday, ESA’s Rosetta space probe made a flyby just 6 kilometers (about 4 miles) away from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is becoming more and more active because the approach to the Sun is sublimating its water ice. This maneuver is an important moment in the Rosetta mission for the possible analyzes but also because it starts a new phase in which the probe will move away from the comet for its passage closest to the Sun in August 2015.
The Rosetta space probe’s flyby is the culmination of a series of maneuvers that started on February 4, 2015 when it abandoned the orbit in which he was flying, about 26 kilometers from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Initially, Rosetta moved away from the comet until it was 142 kilometers (about 88 miles) away then it moved close again and to reach the minimum distance on February 14.
