Instrument commissioning phase, Beginning final approach to the comet Options

[Phil Stooke]

Despite the appearance of complete over-exposure on the nucleus, there is some subtle detail which can be brought out by careful processing. But it may be spurious! - so you can't really interpret anything from it.

Phil

[Gerald]

One more try, just to stimulate imagination, will be obsolete within a few days, certainly:

The rotation axis looks a bit like to be pointing almost horizontally (tilt between 20 and 25°), like indicated by the tentative green line:

[xflare]

With those images being taken a week ago, I would bet they are probably resolving surface features now.

[MahFL]

Shouldn't we have a new topic ?, we are past the commissioning phase.

[elakdawalla]

This thread isn't very full yet, though it might need renaming to include approach imaging. I think it would make sense to start a new thread at the official date of the Mapping Phase, which is given here as August 18.

CODE

.====================================================================
|     Phase       |Start Date|Main Event| End Date |Dur |SunDist(AU)|
|=================|==========|==========|==========|====|===========|
{snip}
|-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----|-----------|
|Cruise 6 (DSHM)  |14/07/2011|          |22/01/2014| 917| 4.49-5.29 |
|-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----|-----------|
|Rendez-vousMan2  |23/01/2014|          |17/08/2014| 206| 3.53-4.49 |
|  ->RVM2         |          |23/05/2014|          |    |           |
|-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----|-----------|
|Global Mapping   |18/08/2014|          |19/10/2014| 63 | 3.15-3.53 |
|and Close        |          |          |          |    |           |
|Observation      |          |          |          |    |           |
|-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----|-----------|
|Lander Delivery  |20/10/2014|          |16/11/2014| 28 | 2.97-3.15 |
|->Lander Delivery|          |11/11/2014|          |    |           |
|-----------------|----------|----------|----------|----|-----------|
|Comet Escort     |17/11/2014|          |31/12/2015| 410| 1.24-2.97 |
'-------------------------------------------------------------------'

[Paolo]

***jaw drops!!!***

Quick Rosetta update: Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a contact binary!
Noyau de la comète 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko

[Gerald]

This is really wow!
I've taken this into account for a few seconds, and then ruled it almost out due to the rapid rotation, but missed to verify my presumption.
I'm sure it's now possible to calculate an estimate of the lower bound for the density of the comet not to break apart into a true binary.

... Which one is Churyumov, and which is Gerasimenko?

[charborob]

***jaw drops!!!***

Quick Rosetta update: Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a contact binary!
Noyau de la comète 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The YouTube video has been removed, and also the CNES page referenced in Emily's blog post.
Try this link (in French). A Google search for "double nucleus Churyumov" should turn up other references.

[dilo]

... Which one is Churyumov, and which is Gerasimenko?

Hey, I think IAU could seriously consider your naming proposal!
anyway, from these first images both objects seems to have the same specular symmetry... incredible amazing nucleus, for sure!

[Bjorn Jonsson]

Wow, this is going to be an even more interesting mission than I was expecting. Interestingly, there are hints of the two components in Phil's and Gerald's heavily processed versions of the earlier images (although it was impossible to tell back then exactly what the images were showing).

Which one is Churyumov, and which is Gerasimenko?

Suddenly the comet's 'long' name has become much better and more appropriate than before.

[Explorer1]

Still nothing on the official ESA pages, or twitter for that matter! The video gas been removed from YouTube too...

I always wondered about the view from something like that trojan Hektor, and how it would be decades before anyone landed on something; guess it won't be that long after all!

[nprev]

Things could get VERY interesting dynamically when Rosetta achieves orbit. I wonder where the barycenter of the two 'lobes' is gonna turn out to be, esp. if there's a significant difference in density or internal material distribution between them. Might facilitate determining the internal structure of each quite a bit.

[Explorer1]

Don't forget that now we have an unexpected choice of landing, and Philae's anchors are looking (ironically) like a liability! No hopping around!
Just let it be somewhere in view of both components; it would be straight out of science fiction. Just serves to show how bizarre things can get in places of such low gravity.

[Phil Stooke]

There is a lot of interesting detail hidden in the bright areas. I'm not posting anything now, but if you can play with images, have a look. I will not post until an official release is available.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

For a preview of surface views on a contact binary, you might enjoy these images from NEAR at Eros - not on the surface, but the low altitude makes it look similar.

Phil



http://near.jhuapl.edu/iod/20010108/index.html

http://near.jhuapl.edu/iod/20001212/index.html