ESA Rosetta Spacecraft Snaps Amazing 3D View of Comet 67P

Break out your red and blue 3D glasses. It's time to examine the nooks and crannies of a comet in three dimensions.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe snapped the two amazing images that were spliced together to create this 3D picture of its target, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, after arriving at the deep space object last week.

The picture of the comet seems to pop off the page when viewed through 3D glasses. Rosetta snapped the two photos on Aug. 7 when the spacecraft was about 65 miles (104 kilometers) away from the comet.

You can see a flyover video of the comet here.

"Peer over cliffs and onto the boulder-strewn 'neck' region, marvel at the layers in the exposed cliff face, and ponder the formation of the numerous crater-like depressions in this amazing 3D view of Comet 67P," ESA officials wrote in an image description.

The space agency also released the separate images used to create the 3D view.

The up-close-and-personal photos show house-sized boulders and seemingly smooth areas on the oddly shaped comet's "head," "neck" and "body."

The images aren't just for entertainment. Rosetta's mission controllers are scoping out good places for the Philae lander, another spacecraft currently housed within Rosetta, to touch down on the 2.5-mile-wide (4 km) comet in November.

Rosetta's photos have already shown that the comet isn't the usual "potato" shape that many people were expecting it to be, according to ESA.

Ground controllers have already started checking out some interesting spots that they could land Philae, but they will choose up to five possible landing sites during a meeting from Aug. 22 to 24.

"The physical nature of the site is also an important factor: are there hazards such as large boulders or deep crevasses on the surface?" ESA officials wrote in a mission description.

"Is the topography of the landing site suitable for the science experiments?"

Data collected by Rosetta's instruments will help determine the best place to land in the months to come, allowing ESA officials to figure out the gravity and rotation of the comet to ensure Philae gets to the surface safely once released.

Rosetta has consistently beamed back amazing images of the comet since its arrival at Comet 67P/C-G on August 6.

A Rosetta photo, taken on Aug. 12, shows the comet's weird shape emerging from shadow.

ESA Rosetta: Amazing new photo of comet 67/P

OSIRIS narrow angle camera view of 67P/C-G from a distance of 1000 km on 1 August 2014. 

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS /UPD /LAM /IAA /SSO /INTA /UPM /DASP /IDA

As the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft closes to within 1000 km of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta science team has released a new image and made the first temperature measurements of the comet's core.

The temperature data show that 67P is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

The new image was acquired on August 1st at 02:48 UTC by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera onboard Rosetta at a distance of approximately 1000 km. It shows the rough surface of the double-lobed core in amazing detail.

Thermal observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko were made by Rosetta's visible, infrared and thermal imaging spectrometer, VIRTIS, between 13 and 21 July, when Rosetta closed in from 14 000 km to the comet to just over 5000 km.

At these distances, the comet covered only a few pixels in the field of view and so it was not possible to determine the temperatures of individual features.

But, using the sensor to collect infrared light emitted by the whole comet, scientists determined that its average surface temperature is about -70°C.

Although -70°C may seem rather cold, importantly, it is some 20–30°C warmer than predicted for a comet at that distance covered exclusively in ice.

"This result gives us the first clues on the composition and physical properties of the comet's surface," says VIRTIS principal investigator Fabrizio Capaccioni from INAF-IAPS, Rome, Italy.

Other comets such as 1P/Halley are known to have very dark surfaces owing to a covering of dust, and Rosetta's comet was already known to have a low reflectance from ground-based observations, excluding an entirely 'clean' icy surface.

The temperature measurements provide direct confirmation that much of 67P's surface must be dusty, because darker material heats up and emits heat more readily than ice when it is exposed to sunlight.

"This doesn't exclude the presence of patches of relatively clean ice, however, and very soon, VIRTIS will be able to start generating maps showing the temperature of individual features," adds Dr Capaccioni.

As Rosetta approachs and later orbits the comet, the sensor will study the variation of daily surface temperatures in order to understand how quickly the surface reacts to solar illumination.

In turn, this will provide insight into the thermal conductivity, density and porosity of the top tens of centimetres of the surface—important data to help select a target site for Rosetta's lander, Philae.

Alien Planet-Hunting Telescope Tool SPHERE Snaps 1st Amazing Images - Video

A new instrument designed to give scientists a direct look at nearby alien worlds has seen its "first light" in Chile, astronomers announced today (June 4).

This infrared image shows the dust ring around the nearby star HR 4796A in the southern constellation of Centaurus. 

Credit: ESO/J.-L. Beuzit et al./SPHERE Consortium

Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE), the new alien planet detection tool was mounted on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope Unit Telescope 3 in the Atacama Desert last month.

In its first few days of operations, SPHERE already has produced images of Saturn's moon Titan and dust discs around stars as it gears up to take pictures of exoplanets, ESO officials said.

Using space and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have detected more than 2,000 exoplanets since spotting the first ones back in the 1990s but scientists have rarely been able to look at these worlds directly because the weak glow of a planet is often outshined by bright light from its parent star.

Instead, astronomers often use indirect techniques like the transit method, in which they look for telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet crosses in front of the star.



To be observed directly, planets usually need to be very large and very far away from their parent star.

The first confirmed direct photo of an alien planet in 2010 showed a world eight times the mass of Jupiter that orbited its host star at from more than 300 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

The SPHERE instrument is shown shortly after it was installed on ESO’s VLT Unit Telescope 3 

Credit: ESO/J. Girard

SPHERE is designed to get the highest contrast possible in a small patch of sky around a star to see exoplanets that might otherwise be hidden.

To boost the contrast in its images, SPHERE uses adaptive optics to correct for the blurring effects of the Earth's atmosphere as well as a coronagraph also blocks out starlight.

NASA Cassini Image: Saturn, Earth Shine

The Cassini spacecraft's onboard cameras acquired a panoramic mosaic of Saturn that allows scientists to see details in the rings as they are backlit by the sun. 

This image spans about 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

A NASA spacecraft has revealed an unprecedented view of Saturn from space, showing the entire gas giant backlit by the sun with several of its moons and all but one of its rings, as Earth, Venus and Mars all appear as pinpricks light in the background.

The spectacular image, unveiled Tuesday (Nov. 12), is actually a mosaic of 141 wide-angle images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft taken in natural colour, which mimics how human eyes might see the ringed planet.

Stretching 404,880 miles (651,591 kilometers) across, the panorama captures all of Saturn's rings up to the ethereal E ring, the second outermost one.

The pictures that make up the mosaic were snapped on July 19, 2013 — the same day that Cassini took advantage of a rare opportunity to photograph Earth without interference from the sun, which was totally eclipsed by Saturn at the time.

From its far-flung perch millions of miles away, Cassini captured amazing portraits of Earth as a pale blue dot as thousands of people on the ground waved in honour of the global picture day.

Carolyn Porco

"In this one magnificent view, Cassini has delivered to us a universe of marvels," Carolyn Porco, who leads Cassini's imaging team at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo., said of the new image in a statement from NASA.

"And it did so on a day people all over the world, in unison, smiled in celebration at the sheer joy of being alive on a pale blue dot."

Earth can be spotted as a blue dot to the lower right of Saturn, while Venus shines to the upper left of the gas giant. Mars, visible as a faint red dot, sits above and to the left of Venus.

Beyond inspiring wonder, this new view of Saturn also promises to help scientists study the planet's rings, which are best observed when light shines behind them, Cassini researchers say.

“This mosaic provides a remarkable amount of high-quality data on Saturn's diffuse rings, revealing all sorts of intriguing structures we are currently trying to understand," Matt Hedman, a Cassini participating scientist at the University of Idaho in Moscow, said in a statement.

ESO APEX: ArTeMiS camera Captures Amazing Image of Cat's Paw Nebula

This image represents some of the first data collected by the ArTeMiS camera on the European Southern Observatory's APEX telescope. Image released Sept. 25, 2013.

Credit: ArTeMiS team/Ph. André, M. Hennemann, V. Revéret et al./ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

A new camera on a telescope in the Southern Hemisphere has captured a stunning image of the Cat's Paw Nebula, offering a colorful and detailed view of a star-forming region of the Milky Way.

Released by the European Southern Observatory, the new photo of the Cat's Paw Nebula located about 5,500 light-years from Earth is one of the first shots taken by ArTeMiS — a submillimeter-wavelength camera added to APEX, the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment in Chile. ESO officials also produced a video fly-through of the incredible Cat's Paw Nebula view using the new camera observations.

The new instrument is expected to help scientists create more detailed wide-field maps of the sky in a shorter amount of time, ESO officials said in an image description. But the installation of the new hardware was no cakewalk.



"The commissioning team that installed ArTeMiS had to battle against extreme weather conditions to complete the task," ESO officials wrote. "Very heavy snow on the Chajnantor Plateau had almost buried the APEX control building."

The staff had to use an improvised road in order to transport and install the instrument in its proper location.

The research team also battled the weather when it came time to observe using ArTeMiS. The light observed by the camera is absorbed by water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, according to ESO officials. Because of this, the scientists had to wait for dry weather before testing out the instrument.

Since its initial commissioning, researchers have used ArTeMiS for scientific projects including one that produced the new photo of the Cat's Paw Nebula.

"This new ArTeMiS image is significantly better than earlier APEX images of the same region," according to ESO officials.

The ArTeMiS cryostat installed in the APEX telescope on the Chajnantor Plateau in northern Chile. 

ArTeMiS is a new wide-field submillimetre-wavelength camera that will be a major addition to APEX’s suite of instruments and further increase the depth and detail that can be observed. 

Credit: ArTeMiS team/ESO

Since its initial commissioning, researchers have used ArTeMiS for scientific projects including one that produced the new photo of the Cat's Paw Nebula.

"This new ArTeMiS image is significantly better than earlier APEX images of the same region," according to ESO officials.

Aurora Borealis: Amazing Auroramax Photos of 2013

Credit: Auroramax

Canada's automated aurora camera took this photo on March 17, 2013. 

"AURORAMAX GALLERY • Latest photo of aurora borealis above Yellowknife, NWT taken at 03:13 MDT on March 17, 2013." 

[See the full photo gallery]

Hurricane Isaac: Amazing Night Photo of Tropical Storm

NASA's Suomi-NPP satellite snapped this spectacular photo of then-Tropical Storm Isaac at night from space early on Aug. 28, 2012, as the storm neared the U.S. Gulf Coast. 

The storm ultimately grew into a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall later in the day.

CREDIT: NASA Earth Observatory

A NASA satellite captured a spectacular photo of what is now Hurricane Isaac from space, a nighttime view showing the then-tropical storm's clouds lit up by moonlight as it approached the U.S. Gulf Coast.

NASA's Suomi-NPP weather tracking satellite recorded the amazing nighttime photo of Isaac just after midnight on Tuesday (Aug. 28).

The bright city lights of New Orleans, Houston and Tampa, Fla., can be easily identified, but the photo also includes lights from cities all along the Gulf Coast, Florida and the southeast U.S. coast.

"The image was acquired just after local midnight by the VIIRS 'day-night band,' which detects light in a range of wavelengths from green to near-infrared and uses light intensification to enable the detection of dim signals," NASA officials explained in an image description. "In this case, the clouds of Isaac were lit by moonlight."

Hurricane Isaac is currently a Category 1 hurricane and made two landfalls late Tuesday in Louisiana. As of 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) today (Aug. 29), Isaac is battering Louisiana and neighbouring states with drenching rains and maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour (120 kilometers per hour), according to the latest National Hurricane Center update.

NASA Hubble's Amazing Rescue - The Movie

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