COBS News archive

Down, down we go to 29 km – or lower?
September 10, 2014
The Rosetta mission control team are transitioning Europe’s intrepid craft onto the next stage of cometary operations: the Global Mapping Phase (GMP). The update below is based on inputs provided by Flight Director Andrea Accomazzo at ESOC and Project Scientist Matt Taylor at ESTEC.

Rosetta Comet is Darker than Charcoal
September 06, 2014
A NASA instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA's) Rosetta orbiter has successfully made its first delivery of science data from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rosetta - Alice spectrograph obtains first far ultraviolet spectra of a cometary surface
September 05, 2014
NASA's Alice ultraviolet (UV) spectrograph aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta comet orbiter has delivered its first scientific discoveries. Rosetta, in orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is the first spacecraft to study a comet up close.

Rosetta: Landing site search narrows
August 26, 2014
The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission has chosen five candidate landing sites on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for its Philae lander. Philae's descent to the comet's nucleus, scheduled for this November, will be the first such landing ever attempted. Rosetta is an international mission spearheaded by the European Space Agency with support and instruments provided by NASA.

New Comet: C/2014 Q3 (BORISOV)
August 26, 2014
Cbet nr. 3936, issued on 2014, August 24, announces the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~17) by G. Borisov (Observatory MARGO, Nauchnij) on CCD images obtained with a 0.3-m f/1.5 astrograph telescope on 2014, August 22.02. The new comet has been designated C/2014 Q3 (BORISOV).

Colliding Atmospheres: Mars vs Comet Siding Spring
August 20, 2014
On October 19, 2014, Comet Siding Spring will pass by Mars only 132,000 km away--which would be like a comet passing about 1/3 of the distance between Earth and the Moon. The nucleus of the comet won't hit Mars, but there could be a different kind of collision.

As Seen by Rosetta: Comet Surface Variations
August 18, 2014
A new image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus. It was taken by the Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on August 7, 2014. At the time, the spacecraft was 65 miles (104 kilometers) away from the 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) nucleus.

Comets forge organic molecules in their dusty atmospheres
August 12, 2014
Scientists have made incredible 3D images of the ghostly atmospheres surrounding comets ISON and Lemmon. These new observations provided important insights into how and where comets forge new chemicals, including intriguing organic compounds.

CometWatch – 10 August
August 12, 2014
Rosetta navigation camera (NAVCAM) image taken on 10 August 2014 at about 110 km from comet 67P/C-G. The phase angle is about 45 degrees.

COSIMA reaches for dust
August 10, 2014
Now that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is within our reach, Rosetta’s mass spectrometer COSIMA, managed by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, is beginning to reach for cometary dust. Literally.

Postcards from Rosetta
August 07, 2014
Latest images from Rosetta’s comet

Orbiter Completes Maneuver to Prepare for Comet Flyby
August 07, 2014
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted the timing of its orbit around Mars as a defensive precaution for a comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014.

Rosetta Arrives at Target Comet
August 07, 2014
Today, after a decade-long journey chasing its target, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, carrying three NASA instruments, became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rosetta: 100 kilometres to 'touchdown'
August 07, 2014
The Rosetta spacecraft is approaching just 100 kilometres from its target comet, "Chury", today. After a ten-year journey, the Bernese instrument, ROSINA, will soon "smell" the first molecules of the comet's gas tail.

How Rosetta arrives at a comet
August 06, 2014
After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, ESA's Rosetta is closing in on its target. But how does a spacecraft actually arrive at a comet?

What’s happening in Rosetta mission control today
August 05, 2014
Yesterday’s orbit correction manoeuvre (OCM) – dubbed CATP for ‘Close Approach Trajectory – pre-Insertion’ – went off without problems, delivering the desired 3.2 m/s of speed decrease.

Rosetta CometWatch – 3 August
August 04, 2014
Rosetta navigation camera (NAVCAM) image taken on 3 August 2014 at about 300 km from comet 67P/C-G. The Sun is towards the bottom of the image in the depicted orientation.

Amazing New Photo of Rosetta Comet
August 03, 2014
As the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft closes to within 1000 km of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta science team has released a new image and made the first temperature measurements of the comet's core. The temperature data show that 67P is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

Rosetta takes comet's temperature
August 02, 2014
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made its first temperature measurements of its target comet, finding that it is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

Rosetta's Comet: Imaging the Coma
August 01, 2014
Less than a week before Rosetta's rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, images obtained by OSIRIS, the spacecraft's onboard scientific imaging system, show clear signs of a coma surrounding the comet's nucleus.