* Astronomy

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RE: Rosetta mission

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NavCam animation 6 August 2014

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Rosetta's orbit around the comet

Spoiler

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The Rosetta probe arrives at distant comet

In an historic first, Europe's Rosetta probe has commenced a powered orbit around a comet after a 10-year chase.
The spacecraft fired its thrusters for six and a half minutes to finally catch up with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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Rosetta timeline: countdown to comet arrival

Orbit entry will take place on 6 August, and will be triggered by a small but crucial thruster firing lasting just 6 min 26 sec, starting at 09:00 GMT (11:00 CEST). The commands were uploaded during the night of 4 August.
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Rosetta's target, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is 'double' comet

Europe's Rosetta probe has acquired some sensational new images of the comet it is chasing through space.
The pictures show that 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko appears to be not one but two objects joined together. It is what scientists call a "contact binary".
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Comet 67P on Fri 4 July
Comet 67P seen on Friday 4 July at a separation of 37,000km

With the Rosetta probe closing in on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we're beginning to get a sense of the ice mountain's shape.
The latest picture release from the European Space Agency (Esa) may only cover an area of about 30 pixels, but it's clear that 67P is no sphere. In some views, the object appears quite elongated.
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Rosetta: Icy quarry coming into view

The European Space Agency's Rosetta probe is edging ever closer to the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for what is expected to be one of the most daring space encounters in history.
Wednesday saw the satellite successfully complete the fourth of its 10 planned thruster manoeuvres.
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Rosetta comet-chaser completes 'big burn'

Europe's comet-chaser Rosetta has taken a big step towards making its historic rendezvous with a 4km-wide ball of ice and rock in early August.
Controllers confirm the spacecraft conducted a major orbit manoeuvre on Wednesday without incident.
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Rosetta comet-hunter narrows the gap

Europe's Rosetta comet-chasing spacecraft has started the process of zeroing in on its quarry.
Controllers lit the thrusters on the satellite on Wednesday, enabling the mission to start to match its pace to the huge ball of ice and dust.
The 45-minute burn was the first of 10 planned manoeuvres up to 6 August, when Rosetta will drop into orbit around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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