The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft has captured its first image of its target comet after almost three years of deep-space hibernation.
Rosetta woke up on January 20, and took images on March 20 and 21 using the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS), according to Astronomy Magazine. Six weeks were spent preparing Rosetta's equipment for a close-up study of its target, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Rosetta first launched in 2004, exploring asteroids and moving to reach the comet. The spacecraft carries a tiny lander named Philae, which is set to land on the comet on Nov. 11, CNET reported.
"Landing on the surface is the cherry on the icing on the cake for the Rosetta mission on top of all the great science that will be done by the orbiter in 2014 and 2015," said project scientist Matt Taylor. "A good chunk of this year will be spent identifying where we will land, but also taking vital measurements of the comet before it becomes highly active. No one has ever attempted this before."
The spacecraft first imaged the comet three years ago during an over 13-hour exposure from a distance of 101 million miles (163 million kilometers), Astronomy Magazine reported. Rosetta is currently about 3 million miles (5 million km) away from the comet, which is too far away for the camera to resolve. The comet appears in less than a pixel and needed 60-to-300-second exposures taken with both narrow-angle and wide-angle cameras. The data took 37 minutes to reach Earth, and it took almost an hour to download each image.
"Finally seeing our target after a 10-year journey through space is an incredible feeling," said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of ORISIS from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research. "These first images taken from such a huge distance show us that OSIRIS is ready for the upcoming adventure."
Rosetta will be closer to the comet between May and August, allowing the spacecraft to study the nucleus's rotation rate and shape in order to plan moves around the comet, Astronomy Magazine reported. Rosetta would also be able to make an initial assessment of the comet's activity.
