First Comet Images: Rosetta Sends Back Pictures from the Surface after Philea’s Landing

Despite a failure of the harpoon system which was to help secure the Philea lander to the surface of the comet, the Rosetta mission has been a huge success. Just hours ago the spacecraft sent back the first images from the surface of a comet.

The historical event went as planned earlier today when the Philea lander touched down on the comet’s surface around 10:35 eastern today.

In addition to the comet image below from Rosetta and the Philea lander, individuals can view the complete collection online, as well as download high-res images of the comet from the ESA web site dedicated to the Rosetta mission.



The description of this comet image from Rosetta and Philea was pulled from the ESA web site (http://www.esa.int/).

“The image shows comet 67P/CG acquired by the ROLIS instrument on the Philae lander during descent on Nov 12, 2014 14:38:41 UT from a distance of approximately 3 km from the surface. The landing site is imaged with a resolution of about 3m per pixel.

The ROLIS instrument is a down-looking imager that acquires images during the descent and doubles as a multispectral close-up camera after the landing. The aim of the ROLIS experiment is to study the texture and microstructure of the comet’s surface. ROLIS (ROsetta Lander Imaging System) is a descent and close-up camera on the Philae Lander. It has been developed by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin. The lander separated from the orbiter at 09:03 GMT (10:03 CET) and touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko seven hours later.”

In addition to the images from Rosetta and Philea, the ESA web site also contains a complete replay video from the landing on the comet earlier today.