Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Bruce Murray Space Image Library

OSIRIS view of boulders and jets on comet 67P's neck, October 20, 2014

OSIRIS view of boulders and jets on comet 67P's neck, October 20, 2014
OSIRIS view of boulders and jets on comet 67P's neck, October 20, 2014 Rosetta captured this view of the bouldery surface of Churyumov-Gerasimenko's neck, with its active jets, on October 20, 2014 from a distance of 7.2 kilometers. The photo is from the Wide-Angle Camera, one of two that make up the OSIRIS instrument package. ESA / Rosetta / DLR / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

Compare this photo with one taken just moments later with a much longer exposure:

Rosetta NAVCAM mosaic of Comet 67P
Rosetta NAVCAM mosaic of Comet 67P Four-image NAVCAM mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, using images taken on 24 September 2014 when Rosetta was 28.5 km from the comet. On the left, the contrast was enhanced by setting the darkest pixels as black and the brightest ones as white; on the right, the intensities were scaled so that the mean brightness of fully illuminated regions of the comet is around 4%.Image: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM