Today’s CometWatch entry was captured on 9 March at a distance of 71.9 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Cropped and processed single frame NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken 9 March from a distance of 71.9 km to the comet centre. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Cropped and processed single frame NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken 9 March from a distance of 71.9 km to the comet centre. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Four image mosaic comprising images taken on 18 January 2015 by Rosetta's Navigation Camera (NAVCAM). Rotation and translation of the comet during the imaging sequence make it difficult to create an accurate mosaic, and there may be some spurious spatial and intensity features as a result of the mosaic-making sequence, so always refer to the individual frames before performing any detailed comparison or drawing conclusions about any strange structures or low intensity extended emission. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Four image mosaic comprising images taken on 18 January 2015 Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

The scale is 6.1 m/pixel and the image measures 6.3 km across (note that the processed version above is slightly cropped in the vertical direction for aesthetic purposes; the original provided at the end of the post is uncropped). As with recent previous entries, these Alice context images are currently slightly over-exposed on some parts of the comet, so we have pushed the contrast to focus on the activity of the comet. Indeed, many jets can be seen against the dark backdrop.

But, at the same time, this view provides one of the clearest views yet of a region on the small comet lobe that in many previously published images has been partly cast in shadow. Thus, included in this post for comparison is roughly the same region seen at different angles/illumination conditions on 30 October 2014 and 18 January 2015.

Four-image mosaic of Comet 67P/C-G on 30 October. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM -CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Four-image mosaic of Comet 67P/C-G on 30 October. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM -CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

The region also includes the Philae “search area” – see the context image here for reference.

 

The original 1024 x 1024 pixel frame for today’s CometWatch entry is provided below:

ESA_Rosetta_NAVCAM_20150309