Emily Lakdawalla • Nov 13, 2009
Rosetta Earth swingby successful
Rosetta appears to have operated flawlessly as it streaked past Earth for its flyby early this morning. Here are a few more gems from the flyby.
First is an actual sighting of the Rosetta spacecraft from Earth. Crazy to look up in the sky and see a fast-moving streak of light that's something we launched into space more than five years ago.
![Earth sights Rosetta for the last time](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/20160313_ROS_2009Nov13_0205_15s_69s_10arcmin.gif)
Next is this long exposure of Earth's nightside. Try to see if you can recognize where it is without reading a caption. (Hint: I, generally a geography ignoramus, recognized it pretty quickly.)
![Southeastern North America at night from Rosetta](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x928_crop_center-center_82_line/90823/20160313_NAC_2009-11-13T04_44_45_775_night_v2.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x594_crop_center-center_60_line/90823/20160313_NAC_2009-11-13T04_44_45_775_night_v2.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x445_crop_center-center_60_line/90823/20160313_NAC_2009-11-13T04_44_45_775_night_v2.jpg 576w)
Finally, Rosetta's departing view of Earth. This one was shot by the navigational camera, not the much higher quality OSIRIS. The streaking of the image results, I think, from charge accumulating in the CCD as the camera looks at a target significantly brighter than it was designed to see. Earth's white clouds are much more reflective than the coal-dark nucleus of a comet.
![Rosetta Navigational Camera view of Earth, November 13, 2009](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x576_crop_center-center_60_line/20160313_20091113T142300.jpg 576w)
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