Rosetta navigation camera (NAVCAM) image taken on 1 August 2014. 

We’re pleased to be able to share a NAVCAM image with you today that shows the comet in a different orientation to the previous week. Until Thursday this week there was a navigation slot once a day, typically at the same time of the day. Due to the rotation period of the comet of 12.4 hours we therefore got almost the same rotation phase each time. Over the next few weeks NAVCAM images will be taken more regularly and so we will see more variation in the NAVCAM images provided here.

Please note that there are artefacts in the images, such as the two “eyes” (the small crater-like features) discussed in the comments section of yesterday’s image. Soon the comet’s nucleus will fill a significant fraction of the field of view and then interpolation and cropping will probably not be needed.

Full-frame NAVCAM image taken on 1 August 2014 from a distance of about 1026 km from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

Full-frame NAVCAM image taken on 1 August 2014 from a distance of about 1026 km from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

View and download interpolated image here.

Crop from the 31 July processed image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, to focus on the comet nucleus. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

Crop from the 1 August processed image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, to focus on the comet nucleus. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM