Rosetta mission releases lots of images of Comet 67P/C-G

The ESA Rosetta mission released nearly 1300 images today of Comet 67P/C-G as the probe approached the object last summer: Major release of NAVCAM images: 800 to 30 km | Rosetta – ESA’s comet chaser

Today marks a major release from the Rosetta downlink and archive groups of detailed images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by Rosetta’s Navigation Camera, or NAVCAM. The 1297 images, which can be accessed via the Archive Image Browser, were acquired between 1 August and 23 September. This corresponds to the final approach of Rosetta to the comet, its arrival at a distance of 100 km on 6 August and its transition to a global mapping phase at 30 km (click here for an animation describing the spacecraft’s trajectories at this time). It was during these two months that mapping and characterisation of the comet’s surface began, and Philae’s candidate landing sites were proposed, analysed and finally selected.

Here the images are presented a video clips:

 

Emily Lakdawalla comments on the images and provides thumbnails for them: More than 1000 Rosetta NavCam images released! – The Planetary Society.