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More than 1000 Rosetta NavCam images released!

Emily Lakdawalla

Written by Emily Lakdawalla
April 29, 2015

Today the European Space Agency released a ton of NavCam images, taken as the spacecraft approached and then entered orbit at the comet. You can see the comet in all its sunlit and shadowy moods. The new release includes images taken from ranges between 800 and 30 kilometers to the comet, through late September 2014. At that time the comet wasn't yet particularly active, so the comet's jets are not obvious in the thumbnail images; you have to download the original data and play with contrast to reveal them. You can access all the data here at the Rosetta archive image browser. You can find out more about the archive on the ESA blog.

To give you a taste of the data that has been released today, ESA made a video:

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Rosetta Navcam's reconnaissance of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko This animation of NavCam images follows Rosetta’s approach to the comet from a distance of about 800 kilometers on August 1, 2014 to about 62 kilometers on August 22.Video: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam

I captured thumbnails of all of the NavCam images that have been released that show the shape of the comet's nucleus. Enjoy!

Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 005
Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 005 Thumbnails of all 213 Rosetta NavCam images taken during "Medium Term Plan 5", between July 3 and August 1, 2014, as the spacecraft approached the comet, closing from 43,000 to only 848 kilometers. Download the full-resolution data at the Rosetta image browser.Image: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam
Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 006
Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 006 Thumbnails of all 770 Rosetta NavCam images taken during "Medium Term Plan 6", between August 1 and September 2, 2014, as the spacecraft approached the comet, closing from 833 to 53 kilometers. Download the full-resolution data at the Rosetta image browser.Image: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam
Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 007
Rosetta Navcam data: MTP 007 Thumbnails of all 527 Rosetta NavCam images taken during "Medium Term Plan 7", between September 2 and 23, 2014, as the spacecraft toured the comet at distances of 55 to under 30 kilometers. Download the full-resolution data at the Rosetta image browser.Image: ESA / Rosetta / NavCam

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