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Explanation: On August 3rd, the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle camera captured this stunning image of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After 10 years and 6.5 billion kilometers of travel along gravity assist trajectories looping through interplanetary space, Rosetta had approached to within 285 kilometers of its target. The curious double-lobed shape of the nucleus is revealed in amazing detail at an image resolution of 5.3 meters per pixel. About 4 kilometers across, the comet nucleus is presently just over 400 million kilometers from Earth, between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Now the first spacecraft to achieve a delicate orbit around a comet, Rosetta will swing to within 50 kilometers and closer in the coming weeks, identifiying candidate sites for landing its probe Philae later this year.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- APOD: 2025 November 17 B Comet Lemmons Wandering Tail
- APOD: 2025 September 30 B Comet Lemmon Brightens
- APOD: 2025 September 29 B Two Camera Comets in One Sky
- APOD: 2025 September 26 B A SWAN an ATLAS and Mars
- APOD: 2025 September 18 B Comet C/2025 R2 SWAN
- APOD: 2025 September 16 B New Comet SWAN25B over Mexico
- APOD: 2025 July 7 B Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS