Today’s CometWatch entry was taken yesterday by Rosetta’s NAVCAM, on the anniversary of Philae’s historic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last year.
The image was taken from a distance of 177.7 km; the image scale is 15.1 m/pixel and the image measures 15.5 km across. It has been lightly enhanced to better show the comet’s activity.
Single frame enhanced NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken on 12 November 2015. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
With Rosetta closer to the comet, more surface details can be seen again. On the large lobe, to the left, the relatively flat surface of Aker can be seen to the top, with Khepry to the left and Babi in the foreground. Hints of Anhur can also just be seen beyond Aker.
On the small lobe, the circular depression Hatmehit takes centre stage. Philae’s first touchdown point, Agilkia, is to the lower right of Hatmehit in this orientation, with its final landing site, Abydos, towards the horizon at the top of this view.
In case you missed it yesterday, a new animation was released by the lander teams depicting Philae’s impressive flight across the surface of the comet from Agilkia to Abydos. More about the outlook for Philae – and Rosetta – in the months and year ahead can be found in our comet landing anniversary article, here.
The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image of today’s Cometwatch entry is provided below:
Discussion: 4 comments
Great view to “connect the dots” on Stretch Theory (or hypothesis, whatever).
1. Rotate head 15 degrees clockwise, as defined in A. Coopers blog.
2. See how the break line on back of head lines up with breakline on body.
3. See how the craters on top center of body match up perfectly with the bisected craters on head.
4. See how the “Stegosaurus Dino Fins” running up the middle of the back of body (exaggerated of course due to sun angle), line up with same texture, shape and size fins on head!
Really, I just cannot see these as mere coincidences (and dozens more “connect the dots” images in Andrew Cooper’s blog).
The idea that two completely different foreign bodies came together, in Contact Binary Theory, which is unproven… (considered “most likely” by the author’s… but advertised as fact!), just doesn’t hold much water to me.
Thank you!
Andrew please add your blog link here!
Hi Ramcomet,
If have add d a few more hyperlinks in my stretch blog:
https://livingcomet.blogspot.com.au/
Impacted by a terrestrial mosquito. Stand-by status.
And some Souls talking about boots on the Martian ground.