Credits: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image above is a two-image mosaic. The full panoramic from CIVA will be delivered in this afternoon’s press briefing at 13:00 GMT/14:00 CET. Watch via esa.int.rosetta
Discussion: 108 comments
Those craggy bis right next to the leg! Looks like a close shave!
the comet is very huge and i don’t know that how Rosetta deployed philae on the comet safely.
this seems very amazing
Can’t believe the images that are being beamed back! Huge history for ESA. Europeans are the first to achieve this amazing feat. Congratulations to all involved.
Uh oh, it doesn’t look like the comet is really below the lander. Is there a chance to set it straight, perhaps by spinning up the flywheel again?
On the other hand, this is definitely the closest look at a comet anyone has ever had. What is the resolution? Few milimeters per pixel?
Is there also a harpoon cable visible ( in picture south, middle-right)?
I reckon that long straight shape seemingly connecting the lander to the rock is one of the screws that apparently failed to secure Philae. If the lander is on its side I wonder what kind of photo imagery will be possible. Will know at this afternoon’s briefing………biting nails frantically…..amazing stuff!
That looks to me like CONSERT (COmet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission), not the harpoon, in which case the is the “forwards” leg that was facing away from Rosetta the last 10 years.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Philae_over_a_comet_%28crop%29.jpg/450px-Philae_over_a_comet_%28crop%29.jpg
Yes, it looks like Philae is on the side, but at least anchored. Hope it could perform well despite of this.
The white line in the bottom left is likely the CONSERT antenna. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_(spacecraft)#mediaviewer/File:Atterrisseur-Philae-15494442575_099c1ff083_o.png
Looks more like a CONSERT antenna to me.
It looks like a harpoon, indeed 🙂
Is that a shiny rock or ice?! This is absolutely astonishing. Well done folks..
“Wow’. What an interesting photo. So many questions. What is the “rope” like feature(s) lower right of pic? It appears to be fused to the wall in front of the lander. What is the “melted chochlate” on the surroundings? Do we know what the hell we are actually looking at here? Is it rock or ice or rockice? What is it? Please ESA. Tell us.
Do you really mean that ESA has the manpower to answer questions (often idiotic)?
By the way, new and interesting Information is given in the blog “Philae, the ‘happy lander'”, but nobody comments because (?) there is no picture to fantasize about.
I think the “rope like feature” is a CONSERT antenna. And the “melted chocolate” could be compression artifacts. Or actual rocks too.
Congratulations!
I hope little Philae managed to secure itself enough to the surface to start all the intended science.
Let’s see what the team has to report on what happend after first touchdown. Hopefully not too much bouncing against big “rocks” like in the background of the image.
OMG! It looks like it is sitting sideways. Tilting the picture 90 degrees clockwise seems to make more sense…
Agree!
One of the most significant images of our time representing a fantastic achievement for humankind. Well done, just brilliantly well done from all of us here at Astro Ventures
Here is my attempt at rotating the image upside up:
https://imgur.com/0TJXQ0d
What do you mean ‘Up’. There is no up in space.
Philae is not in empty space though, it’s on a body that has a (very weak) gravitational pull, and “up” at the local level is merely the opposite direction to gravity.
Kasuha,
Funny, I see it the other way, assuming higher objects are going to catch more sunlight…Try rotating original about 60 degrees counter-clockwise? Thanks for putting that up!
Or…. If that is a harpoon cable, is Philae hanging off a cliff and we are looking upwards??? Yikes!
Can’t wait to find out! Not sure Philae can drill in this precarious position without ending up on its head in the bottom.
In the light of last update, it looks like I was almost right with the rotation – except ‘up’ is actually ‘down behind the edge’ from the point of view of local gravity. Philae is not toppled, it’s just the image is distorted differently than it looks like.
If Philae really is on the edge of that crater as indicated in the update, it might actually be beneficial for it to try to jump behind that edge since there seems to be much better sunlight in that area.
Looks like Philae is lying on its right side? How are the CIVA cams oriented?
Spectacular, looks brecciated. Congratulations all involved
Absolutely stunning! Great job… Great Team… And the best wishes and good luck for all the future miracles to happen…!
Thanks for the mosaic.
It seems, Philae is in some artistic position.
Ingo.
Can Rosetta identify, where on the comet
Philae is “sitting” now?
Congratulations from the bottom of my heart! I’m convinced that Philae will do the job.
Best,
ED
ESA has definitively put human into space for ever and ever, which in mind is a good sign of the preservation of the best qualities of humanity. Thanks you and keep going
Did it bounce into the crater?
Is Philae lying on the side in this photo?
So utterly facinated. Almost so I wish I were a “astrogeologist”!
Russia, Ukraine, America, ISIL – look up! Look what humans who work together can do!
What a huge achievement fantastic images coming back lets hope there a are plenty more to come. Well done
Whew! That is a fair-sized rock that Philae landed next to.
Now we have a better idea of the nature of the rocks, and of course a gazillion more questions…
(Squirming til this afternoon) 🙂
–Bill
Bill: still no update on where it could be. From your perspective map, the features A (which I once called Chocolate Bar) and B and the ridge connecting them are wall-like regions not that far from Agilkia but I suspect the initial lander touchdown direction may have been different, in which case the crater walls are a possibility. But one could be misled because the picture does not cover a very large viewing area, looking at the Civa panorama should help.
Now that we are here, let’s discuss the geology and nature of the (initial) landing site. This is called Geomorphology.
This will be a series of poster-presentation style images in my Geomorphology Gallery: https://univ.smugmug.com/Rosetta-Philae-Mission/Rosetta-Geomorphology/
The first image is ” The Geomorphology of the Agilkia landing site” A discussion of the geology and morphology of the (nominal) Philae landing site on the Smaller Lobe of Comet 67P/C-G. From the examination of Rosetta’s Navcam and OSIRIS imagery an interpretation of the nature and causes of the surface features can be made.
The following features will be discussed in separate image poster-presentations:
Landing site
“Effusive” deposits
Residual scree
Plumed deposits
Pitted terrain
https://univ.smugmug.com/Rosetta-Philae-Mission/Rosetta-Geomorphology/i-FrrGcRD/0/L/Agilkia_landing_site_geomorph_basemap_res-L.png
Image source: ESA/Rosetta mission
Data interpretation: Bill Harris
With other images to follow.
–Bill
Is it possible to produce a MODEL VIDEO here showing the extend/speed of the ROTATION – real time and accelaration – of the comet AND of Rosetta
Magnificent, just magnificent! Congratulations to all, this is up there with the first moon landing (which I watched!).
As other respondents have said, it looks as though either Philae is on its side, or it is close up against a rock wall. Intrigued by the linear object coming into shot from right of bottom centre; it looks to be of braided construction. Is this part of Philae?
This can’t be more exciting!!! After all, Philae is safe!!! Congrats to ESA and Europe!
Congratulations! What an achievement. My feelings remind me of July, 1969.
Stuck between a rock and a soft place?
Spot on Jacob. I think 9 out of the 10 instruments will still get great data, just the drill and sampling might not happen. A 90% success rate on a project of this mind boggling difficulty is totally amazing in my book. Just this one image of the surface makes this mission a complete success for me. If they can get some more CIVAS images with a better exposure they could be amazing.
We get to see everything of interest on the comet, “cliff” structure, boulders, surface “dust” and the view of the coma from the surface. Philae has come up trumps in my view. If she had stayed put where she first touched down all we would see would be a boulder in the distance and vast expanse of greyness. Every cloud has a silver lining.
I’m wondering if after the first bounce Philae landed on the edge of the crater rim at landing site B and toppled over the edge. She may even be trapped half way down. The team seem to have a good common sense plan, get all the data we can right now, whist we sort out what our options are. A risk all move at the end of the primary battery life may be considered if the amount of sunlight is too little to enable any significant second phase science to be done. Will Andrea and his team be asked to dive down and get a closer look? I’m sure they could if asked, but maybe it would take too long to get near enough and they won’t risk Rosetta.
I think our concepts of up and down, due to our life on a stable planetary body are distorting the way we are interpreting this place. Even if the lander is “on its side” that doesn´t matter, what is flat on this amazing object?Philae has found itself a “safe” spot to cling to, at least for the time being. I think any object that´s not cemented to the surface by impact and bound by ice won´t last long here, the sheer speed of the comet combined with its rotation, make it a dynamic and volatile place. Wow!! what a place, an incredible achivement to have even “landed”
Fantastic images, the most alien landscape imaginable, such a chaotic conglomeration of materials,
Robin: I posted something which intersects with your views on “Philae status, a day later”. Questions: is it a cliff? is it a pit? is it a cave? With some data on solar angle a search of the existing Osiris images of the head, coupled with the data now coming in re temperature and composition, should yield some pointers. The science is certainly going to be interesting, but now everything has to be prioritized by battery life.
FANTASTIC JOB ALL OF YOU. THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT IS THE FUTURE AND IT IS HERE.
Bravi tutti.
Una dimostrazione che l’ingegno Europeo e orgogliosamente anche Italiano non’è secondo a nessuno.
Bravissimi!
Wonderful! A question. Is it one of the two harpoons we can get a glimpse of in the lower right corner of the pic?
Didn´t they failed? Did just one succeded to anchor the lander Philae? God luck with your mission! Just me in Sweden on the Earth following this great event.!
The linear thing seems one of the Philae antenna
Is the image presented this way up because Philae is ‘dangling’ from the harpoon?
Congratulations to the latest news and the first photo from Philea. Me and my 9 year old twins watched the breathtaking first landing attempt yesterday live on TV and were in deep concern about the landers safety: this really are exiting days for everyone interested in science! Hopefully Philae will collect so many data as possible. Thank you for all the hard work over so many years to make this incredible misson possible for mankind!!
Congrats, ESA, for this historic achievement.
I am wondering… in this picture it seems the lander is in the bottom of a shallow well, with vertical walls very close to the lander, am I right, or this is just a visual,effect because of perspective?
If so, I hope it does not affect the solar panels performance
Congratulations. What an achievement. Particuarily as this is taking place so far away in deep space. Can anyone tell me where the light in these fantastic pictures is coming from?
looking at pictures of where the CIVA camera is placed i’m guessing that we are looking down at and angle on the foot. The angle may be making the right hand side look like a vertical object as apposed to the horizontal floor.
With no light reflection on the left seems to magnify this effect
Could that be one of the CONSERT antenna’s visible at the bottom right?
Puede ser visto el módulo Philae en su sitio de aterrizaje a través de OSIRIS? Es suficiente la resolución para identificarlo?
Wow!!! The picture is truly amazing, in various respects.
This is apparently highly stressed, thermally-shocked bedrock, with not a sign of the slightest layer of dust anywhere (any dust has been electrically lifted off the surface and is now in the coma…). The rock is even complete with those tell-tale straight lines of several machined holes to be seen everywhere in this image, at a scale of millimetres on a surface which presumably measures barely one square metre (judging by the size of Philae’s visible foot). We had already seen the same sort of machining, at a hugely larger scale, in pictures taken by Rosetta from many kilometers away, for example: https://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/08/Comet_on_7_August_b, taken on August 7 from a distance of 104 km…
It certainly doesn’t look like Philae has finally come to rest on anything soft, porous or liquorice-like.
It’s not surprising that Philae can’t get a proper hold on the comet. It was (fortunately for us) extremely lucky to have rebounded twice, without exceeding escape velocity, before resettling for good on the surface. (Special congratulations to the engineers who designed the shock-absorber mechanisms, BTW!) If mission directors make a new attempt to fire the harpoons, the rebound effect might be sufficient to send Philae floating gently off into space, never to be seen again. Don’t do it!
Can’t wait for the panoramic views at 14:00 CET!
Warmest congratulations to all who contributed to this unprecedented technical achievement! Unbelievable and breath taking! Science fiction come true, indeed! Well done ESA !!!
Great: mankind landed on a comet !
congratulations to everybody involved !
To me it does not look like as if it is lying on the side or upside down. The left half and upper right corner are just in the shadow.
What about the messages one could hear yesterday:
* philae did not fire the harpoons – control was considering to try to refire them
* strength of telemetry signal was varying in time but became later stable which was interpreted that the lander rebounced (one time, several times ?), rotated and landed a second time – which of course then could be in any orientation …
I’m also worried about those small white spots showing up most clearly in the darker areas of the picture. I take them to be the focal points of ongoing electric discharges and even if they are minuscule in diametre, they are still too close to Philae for comfort…
Hello THOMAS, a momentous day for truth, yes?
You are probably right about the charge concentration and plenty of places for more on that rock face. Closeup fireworks to come almost certainly.
You could also be right about the reaction effect. They say the harpoons did not activate but they also said earlier that they had been rewound. Or Perhaps even the ice screws could have done it.
The ROMAP results will be interesting.
Hi, originalJohn
Indeed! The location of the charge focus and intensity will be changing constantly. Shame that Philae’s cameras will apparently not be able to record them…
There seem to be conflicting versions regarding the harpoons. It’s still not clear to me, after watching the press briefing, whether they completely failed to function or whether they just failed to get a grip on the comet. I suspect the latter.
Personally, I can’t wait for the CONSERT results regarding the internal makeup of the nucleus: solid rock or void (to account for the “40% density of water” figure)?.
The white areas could of course just be ice Thomas, the numerous hazy plumes, sublimation, and the little holes all over the surface, the result. Good to see you’re still fighting your corner.
It is amazing though the variety of different looking material in just this small view. Top left the cometary equivalent of pumice, just to the right of that the cometary equivalent of concrete. Next to that a melted glassy type material. At the bottom of the image smooth more solid dull, cement like material. To the right a more shiny material prone to fracturing into regular block shapes.
An even more amazing image than the panoramas of the surface from Rosetta. Good luck to the folks trying to unpick that jumble of materials. My guessing days are done, its ice and minerals, mixed and moulded in a way completely different from anything seen on Earth.
Thank You so much to everyone at ESA for sharing this with us as best you can. Its been a fantastic, but also very real adventure so far. I for one don’t want, reserved, strait laced, all professional poker faced, sanitised, trained lackeys presenting this very real and historic event. Real people is whats needed and that’s what we got. The atmosphere even got to Jim Green from NASA, we saw a show of american enthusiasm, felt personally I’m sure, but more as a big dig at NASA’s political master’s lack of imagination, planning and support.
Robin, I’ve recorded on other threads that I’ve been literally moved to tears at key stages in Philae’s momentous adventure with the comet (and I’m not ashamed to own up to it), so overwhelming is the scientific and engineering accomplishment we are privileged to witness.
(But perhaps I’m just getting old and the neurons controlling my lachrymal glands are also on their last legs…).
Whatever, the passionate belief I have in the importance of this mission is also why I am indeed still “fighting my corner”. May the better model win!
You are not ty one moved to tears Thomas. There is a great clip on the BBC News website of a lady Professor inovled with Philea going completely bonkers. That was me in my living room. I just hope Philae can get enough data to make some meaningful conclusions. I suspect there will be more uncertainties and questions raised than answered. I applaud ESA’s ambition to try and get all the answers, but this is inevitably going to turn out to be just a reconnoiter mission, proof of concept if you like.
Indeed the CONSERT results are probably the most interesting and fortunately these don’t seem to have been hampered at all by Philae’s adventures. ROMAP seems to be OK too, so some electrical and magnetic data should be forthcoming. No pretty pictures so it will not be audience friendly and we might have to dig to find the results.
Was the suspected “bounce” of the probe perhaps a result of the harpoons firing? With so little gravity at work they are basically two objects almost in formation and perhaps the harpoons had mild recoil, enough to make the lander hop when the down-thruster no longer operated as anticipated.
Either way this is a major step in exploration and it remains to be seen whether ESA can perform some innovative workarounds for the probe if it is in a delicate situation. Hopefully Rosetta can image Philae to clarify the situation and perhaps the spirit of Apollo 13 will rise to save the day again.
Amazing. In a troubled world, thank God there are people like you making things like this happen.Incredible.
Amazing!
can’t wait for more scientific information, hopefully most of information will become public…
Breath taking. Better than I dared imagine in my wildest dreams (well sort of..) . Incredible performance and result. Hopefully Philae’s solar panels are protected but still capting sufficient light so that lifetime can be extended. Anyway, looks like Philae has had a lot of luck looking a these first images, especially after bouncing twice.. Anyway Philae is on it’s destination and that’s a major feat in itself.
Absolutely fantastic, well done to all those involved in such an incredible feat. Can`t wait to hear results of what its made of……
Assuming the craft is tilted 90 clockwise – Can the Philae engineers fire a single Harpoon, perhaps the one left of picture behind the present view? The firing impulse will be lateral and will be opposed by the rock face seen in the picture, so there is no risk of being eject off or away from 67P. If the harpoon catches any where, then winding it in may tilt Philae upright.
Fantastic news the lander is ok, looks like a perilous position from the little we can see.
Amazing that on such a small diameter of the ground there is so many different features.
Some of it looks like recent melt, well at least it happened after the conglomerate had settled.
Is the ppicture lit by a lamp on the lander?
Does this make it easier to get a grey scale?
Спасибо нашим советским учёным-астрономам за то , что они открыли такую хорошую комету!
Congratulations ESA. This is truly a momentous achievement that will be an important part of space exploration history.
Congratulations ESA. This is a truly momentous achievement that will be an important part of human space exploration history.
Congratulations to all involved what a stunning achievement. So glad it is or seems to be stable.
Look forward to more photo releases, although the face just off top center right doesn’t look too happy :o) looks like its wearing a judges wig as well
Very impressive-surface dynamics. And the landing approach with a first at least 300 m altitude jump followed by a 8 m altitude jump is impressive as well.
Well done to the esa for making history,
You guy’s deserve a very large pat on the back for achieving such an amazing feat over the years and to now the present where the whole world can actually see what a close up of a comet would and does actually look like.
You should be very proud of everyone who has been involved in this project from start to finish.
I wish you all the best in getting what you want from landing on the comet and i also hope that whatever scientific tests you do that they are all fruitfull and full of information that could one day help the human race protect itself from such a beautiful & astronomical body.
Good Luck
Cheers
Mark
The rod like straignt shape at the lower right, that seems to have some helicoidal steel wire along, is part of the Philae instruments? some kind of extended antenna or arm? please check is easily find at the 1/4 horizontal from rightmost edge dissapearing from the bottom in an 15° angle about to left not seems to be part of the ground rocks
A great achievment, we went from superstition to real knowledge regarding to comets in about 2 centuries or less
Congratulations!
Charly
Congratulations!!
Amazing success, Rosetta & Philae have achieved 10 years after the launch.
67P comet, its irregular shape is also a great obstacle, but magnificent Harry Potter like control of
ESA did it.
In 2005, Hayabusa also made touchdown on asteroid Itokawa after rendez-vous, and gave us many interesting informations.
I hope many collected data of Rosetta & Philae will make great progress to science of comets,
1.e organic compounds like amino acids, density
of 0.4g/cm3 and structure of 67P.
Carbo-ices! 😉
After considerable analsys of the image above I see some striking similarities. Misson accomplished?
https://pasteboard.co/1FU5rhzq.jpg
It’s a cold corner.
Logan: The data presented at DPS suggested sharp temperature drops below the surface, but unless this is a cave Philae is above the surface. Can one estimate the diurnal temperatures? Of course, this data may already be there from the instruments.
Your are right, Lodaya. The landing site could be searched by his temp and insolation profile.
Could the surface be harder than anticipated and the harpoons just acted in tipping the lander over?
For a passionate supporter of space exploration and a proud European Rosetta’s daring achievements are pure pleasure, as they touch my deepest feelings. Our little contribution to a Humankind that’s looking up, not back!
Thanks guys for what you’re doing!
Congrats! We are waiting for more! You did incredible job including 1km-jump over the comet 🙂 Hats off!
Hello Rosetta-team !
It speaks to my heart…
Great, really great ! Congratulation !
Rosetta and Philae, Thank you for amazing images. Venture out for us wherever you roam. we are connected expecting news.
Congratulations to all on the team, a superb effort. The photos that have been coming back make me realise just how risky the whole endeavour was, it is a very hostile place to land even for a machine. Looking at all the rocks, even from 40 metres out I am not surprised it had some trouble.
Earth to Philae – please relay your global coordinates… And stop bunny hopping.
I keep wondering whether the harpoon[s] may have been what launched the poor thing off of the surface. Nothing about the lander appears all that bouncy.
I wonder what other methods they contemplated to help Philae to stick.
We’re not in Agilkia anymore, Philae.
Remarkable achievement ESA, congratulations to the whole team, worthy of the Noble award. I hope you´ll have time to fix the solar panel problem. Even if that´s not possible, the images and data that you´ve already collected of this extraordinary object have given scientists a wealth of information to analyse for years to come.
What´s so fascinating is the composition of the comet which is far more complex that thought, it appears to me that comets are more like protoplanets, collecting debris in the outer reaches of our solar system untill they colide with a larger body or gain so much material that they lose velocity and stabilize thier orbits to become a planet in thier own right.
Thanks for stimulating our curiosity, I´m sure you´ve got alot more questions than answers aswell.
Well done everyone involved.
Congratulations on getting this far.
It will be bad luck if the batteries are not recharging because of the current location/orientation – is there an option to put Philea into hibernation mode so that it can recharge in a few months when the sun light will be more intense?
What a shame, that Philae does not have plutonium batteries like Curiousity on Mars. It is lost because of that political decision. So, what are the scientific results of the mission?
Robotic Ethics: Philae should be left with enough energy for at least one ‘survival’ action.
Thanks for allowing us to attend such a historical moment. Wow!
Other long, straight, helicoidal features observed in Philae’s famous first image!
In the famous close-up image acquired by Philae of the rocky wall it is stuck up against (https://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/11/13/welcome-to-a-comet/), many bloggers commented on the thin, dead-straight, apparently braided feature which is clearly visible towards the right at the bottom of the image. There seemed to be general agreement, given just how straight and braided it appears, that it had to be a man-made object such as the antenna which provides data to the CONSERT instruments.
I remained sceptical myself, since the fairly precise alignment of this feature with that of the wider rock strata around it seemed to be too coincidental to be the result of mere chance. Above all, no mission scientist has since confirmed the “antenna” hypothesis. My interpretation was and still is that this is a natural feature of the comet surface and that its shape was produced under the effect of a rotating current field, as in electric discharge machining processes (both natural and industrial).
MY HUNCH IS PROVED TO BE CORRECT BY CLOSER SCRUTINY OF THE REST OF THE IMAGE. Zoom in (x5) on the bright rocky feature at the top of the image, slightly right of centre, just below the twin-peaked, jagged feature standing out against the background darkness. You will see, on the left-hand edge of that brighter patch, what resembles two (perhaps three) parallel spiral nails like those used by roofers down here on Earth, complete with their heads…! Just compare them with the nails shown here on a nail manufacturer’s website (the first that came to hand): https://www.threestar.name/_d273566042.htm.
There is no way that these features, which presumably measure not much more than a couple of inches in length, can have anything to do with Philae and they are certainly not imaging artifacts, so the very similar (albeit slightly larger) feature at the bottom of the image certainly doesn’t have anything to do with Philae either.
Given the intense scrutiny which this unique close-up image of the comet’s surface has necessarily been subjected to by mission scientists ever since it was transmitted four days ago, I’m a little disappointed (but not really surprised…) that this new feature has not yet been pointed out and commented on.
The Philae image represents just one or two square metres of the comet’s surface, imaged in the most random way imaginable. Statistically, there are hence millions of similar, spiral-nail-like features, at different scales, all over the comet’s nucleus.
Almost literally, the features we see in this image are just two or three more nails in the coffin of standard comet theory…
I don’t see anything spiral there, looks to me more like the edge of an embedded plate
the whole place looks like it was ploughed over again and again, mixing material that may once have been a surface with other stuff.
this is in microgravity, I would be careful to call it rock, you can probably poke most of it with a finger
that the drilling ‘encountered something hard’ can also just mean the lander was lifted from the force against the material
wa are talking micrograms of force per kilogram of mass type of ‘gravity’ here, I doubt anything drilled ‘into’ under these conditions without having been anchored, and then anchored in what
this may all just be soft, pulpy dust, like when you spill flour and you get ‘rocks’ that crumble when you try to pic them up….
Hi Thomas,
I have taken a look.
These are almost certainly rock edges.
I know where you are coming from and understand why you have thought it. Good thinking but I am not aware of any ‘screw’ effect into any media from a discharge/connection.
You are probably familiar with Thunderbolts.info (excellent place to learn some). Good info and examples of what to look out for.
Sites that explain how photos can deceive us. You will be stunned at how our eyes trick us. For studying photos it is a must to have this under our belt, else before long we are seeing pictures in curtains and an awful lot from very little.
Electrically induced evidence is usually loud and clear, we just have to recognize it.
Thanks for responding, Mark.
The features I point out are necessarily “rock edges”. I’ve been arguing for several weeks on this board (among other things) that the most striking visual feature of 67P is the stratification of the rock formations we see everywhere. I more recently surmised that given the remarkably jagged appearance of the outcrops visible on every skyline of every photo, it was more likely to be a metamorphic (rather than a sedimentary) type of rock such as slate for example, the strata of which, seen sideways-on, are totally straight . Perhaps my comment was a little too elliptical….
And thanks, I know all about the tricks that optical illusions can play with us, especially if we are actively seeking to be deluded.
My major point, however, was that the “nail-like” features I refer to at the top of the image bear too close a resemblance to the “antenna-like” feature everyone immediately noticed bottom right for this to be a coincidence. No mission scientist has yet confirmed that this feature is actually the CONSERT antenna (and no mention was made of it in the original press release, whereas it would be dead simple to demonstrate), so I conclude that it isn’t. If it is therefore also a NATURAL feature, it is a very striking one and the presence of the “nail-like” features I refer to are merely corroborating evidence of the common electrical origin of these different features. I claim nothing more.
Daposter
So what broke the hammer?
The straight object is clearly part of Philae – you can see its shadow coming from the lander to the wall. The feature at the top is a smooth linear feature. Since we have no idea what the material is or what it goes through during outgassing, nothing whatsoever can be inferred from it. At this point in our knowledge, it’s just a datum. People have imagined artifacts in images of the moon and Mars, but they were wrong. It’s like seeing images in the clouds (or Jesus on a piece of toast). To you it’s a machined surface; to me it looks more like a bunny.
@Bric “you can see its shadow coming from the lander to the wall”
Sorry, but there is no shadow whatever cast by this feature on the “wall”.