* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Rosetta mission

Blobrana · L

First results and images from Rosetta's fly-by of asteroid Steins will be presented at a press conference, which will be webcast live, on Saturday 6 September starting at 12:00 CEST.
A number of presentations will be made during the press conference covering the Rosetta mission, the challenge of implementing the fly-by, and the first results and images.

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Blobrana · L

The Rosetta spacecraft control room is buzzing with anticipation as Rosetta closes in on asteroid 2867 Steins. The fly-by timeline includes a series of critical events, culminating with closest approach - expected at 20:58 CEST, 5 September 2008.

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Blobrana · L

ESAs Rosetta spacecraft will make a historic encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on 5 September 2008. The doors of ESAs European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will be open to the media as of 18:00 on 5 September to follow the fly-by events.

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Blobrana · L

On 14 August, Rosetta conducted a successful trajectory correction manoeuvre using data obtained from the Agency's first-ever optical tracking of an asteroid target, (2867) Steins. Images from the spacecraft's cameras were used to calculate the asteroid's location and optimise its trajectory for fly-by next month.

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Blobrana · L

Heading toward its first target-asteroid, (2867) Steins, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has started using its cameras to visually track the asteroid and eventually determine its orbit with more accuracy.

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Blobrana · L

Engineers at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Germany are working to a tight deadline as ESA's comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta swings steadily closer to a spectacular asteroid fly-by on 5 September 2008.
Preparations for the fly-by of asteroid Steins are ongoing - and intensifying - for the men and women of the Rosetta Flight Control Team based at ESOC, where spacecraft operations are controlled from the Rosetta Dedicated Control Room (DCR).

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Blobrana · L

Spacecraft controllers have just awoken Rosetta from hibernation to prepare for its encounter with asteroid (2867) Steins on 5 September. ESA's comet chaser will study the relatively rare asteroid as it flies by on its way to comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Launched in March 2004, Rosetta will reach its final destination only in 2014, after travelling a total of about 6500 million km. The distance between the spacecraft and the Sun as it approaches the comet will be about 600 million or 4 AU (1 AU or 1 Astronomical Unit is equal to 150 million km, the mean distance between Earth and the Sun).

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Blobrana · L

Earth's true colours

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Credit ESA

True colour images of Earth as seen by Rosettas OSIRIS camera are now available. The pictures were taken on 13 November during the swing-by, and on 15 November, as Rosetta left on its way to the outer Solar System, after the swing-by.
After its closest approach to Earth, Rosetta looked back and took a number of images using the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). This particular image was acquired 15 November 2007 at 03:30 CET.
The image above is a colour composite of the NAC orange, green and blue filters.
At the bottom, the continent of Australia can be seen clearly.
During the swing-by, OSIRIS observed Earths night-side

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Blobrana · L

Son of Rosetta