[meteorite-list] Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4415

Rosetta Orbiter to Swoop Down On Comet in February
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
December 17, 2014

The European Space Agency's orbiting Rosetta spacecraft is expected to 
come within four miles (six kilometers) of the surface of comet 
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in February of next year. The flyby will be 
the closest the comet explorer will come during its prime mission.

"It is the earliest we could carry it out without impacting the vitally 
important bound orbits that are currently being flown," said Matt Taylor, 
the Rosetta project scientist from the European Space Research and Technology 
Center, Noordwijk, the Netherlands. "As the comet becomes more and more 
active, it will not be possible to get so close to the comet. So this 
opportunity is very unique."

The low flyby will be an opportunity for Rosetta to obtain imagery with 
a resolution of a few inches (tens of centimeters) per pixel. The imagery 
is expected to provide information on the comet's porosity and albedo 
(its reflectance). The flyby will also allow the study of the processes 
by which cometary dust is accelerated by the cometary gas emission.

"Rosetta is providing us with a grandstand seat of the comet throughout 
the next year. This flyby will put us track side -- it's going to be that 
close," said Taylor.

The Rosetta orbiter deployed its Philae lander to one spot on the comet's 
surface in November. Philae obtained the first images taken from a comet's 
surface and will provide analysis of the comet's possible primordial composition.

Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from 
the epoch when our sun and its planets formed. Rosetta will be the first 
spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is 
subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations 
will help scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our 
solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with 
water, and perhaps even life.

Rosetta is a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its 
member states and NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, 
a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages 
the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO instrument and hosts 
its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute 
(San Antonio and Boulder) developed the Rosetta orbiter's IES and Alice 
instruments, and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES) 
and Alan Stern (Alice).

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta


Media Contact

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov 

Markus Bauer
European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands
v 011-31-71-565-6799
markus.bauer at esa.int 

2014-434