67P Churyemov-Gerasimenko

I notice many of you liked my coffee 2 blogs below this. Well grab some "coffee" and have a look at this comet. Here is an "amateur" animation. Before I go further I would like you to understand albedo or
auf Deutsch - Albedo

These 3 images were taken by Rosetta at different times since March 2nd 2004 partly for calibration purposes but also for comparison of how different surfaces reflect light. The earth reflects approx 40% of what falls on it, the moon between 9 and 12% and 67P around 4%. Comet Halley also is quite dark:

Now I have often been asked how accurate are the comets I make. Here are images from Earth Hour in March at Montreal-Westmount:

This is the one on the right covered with hoar frost:

The one on the left is about 2 hours older to demonstrate that comets do age. I'll discuss strength,and density in another entry.

Now I show 67P from the Feb 14 very close flyby:

Rosetta took quite a series of images on the way in and on the way out from distances between 6km (above) and just over 30km.

There is a lot of detail and later one will be able to make comparisons to see how the surface has changed with time due to sublimation. (There are many more images.)

That "smudge" is the shadow cast by Rosetta's solar panels:

Finally for tonight I want to leave you with a link to the NY Times which appears to being kept up todate.
Give it a try once a week - may have to refresh the browser to replace the cache. wob