Instrument commissioning phase, Beginning final approach to the comet Options

[Gerald]

Be careful. ESA posted an image that shows you the original resolution of the data. Most of the features that you've identified are barely more than one pixel across.

I've been aware, that it's close the limit of the resolution, and first have been skeptical, too. For this I've first smoothed the image by a 1.5 pixel Gauss blur, before applying a 5 pixel hipass filter, to later enhance the image.
Before identifying feature candidates I've checked, whether they occur in at least two images. The usual averaging technique to beat down noise doesn't work easy here, because the perspective changes with each image.

Here the valley candidate as an example (crop of the DLR image) :

(could also be an elliptical crater or two overlapping craters)

Of course, there is still a risk, that some is an artifact, but it should reduce exponentially with the number of images a feature occurs.

[djellison]

What are the chances of this comet disintegrating when close to perihelion. Could these two pieces come apart?

It's been in it's current orbit for about 55 years - or nearly 9 perihelion passes. It's not broken apart yet.

[Ron Hobbs]

I guess we will just have wait and see, won't we.

And, darn it, I cannot get that song out of my head.

"Rubber duckie, your the one ...."

[MarsInMyLifetime]

If you've seen Camel Rock Monument in northern New Mexico, you may be wondering if the camel has a counterpart in space: http://www.scenicusa.net/083012.html

[belleraphon1]

Call for media: Rosetta’s comet rendezvous on August 6th
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/18/ca...met-rendezvous/

[Harder]

New Mexico? How about this one from the Libya desert, due South from Marsa El Brega on the road to Attahadi. It’s living proof that Nature is capable of stunning Duck renditions. An appetizer for what is yet to come from the Rosetta team?

[Gerald]

A couple of parallel-eyeds based on the DLR image:

[TheAnt]

I agree with the idea it look a little bit like a rubber duck.

And I have to agree, we cannot say any features are seen from just single pixels in any images.
So just take a deep breath and wait a few more days for details to appear. =)

[machi]

New images from Rosetta!


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

[Gerald]

A strongly enhanced version:

From the blurred scale you may approximately estimate the resolution.

[machi]

We know distance (~5500 km) so resolution is slightly over one hundred meters per pixel (102-103 m/pix).
Images on the ESA's site are 8× magnified.

[dilo]

If you pay attention to last frame, there is a "welding" flat region between the two portions, made of darker material compared to the bright ring all around the contact; my impression about the "white collar" is that it could be made of fresh material exposed during last passages, when volatile substances (previously filling the gap between the two portions) sublimated; obviously, this idea is highly hypothetic! Only spectral analysis, joined to high-resolution morphology, could help to confirm or not this model...

[nprev]

Given the processing & enhancement done to these images & their size in pixels, is the resolution sufficient yet to determine if the albedo differences Dilo noted are real? For example, the bright 'ring' at the lobe contact point in particular sure looks like it might be specular; maybe the rest of the surface appears just as bright from the right illumination angles.

[Phil Stooke]

Very nice new images - here's a differently processed version.

Phil

[Explorer1]

Looks like new NAVCAM's will be given out daily from now to arrival. Better than OSIRIS weekly I suppose?