First View Of Earth as Rosetta Approaches Home

ESA: This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser earlier today as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby.

ESA: This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by the OSIRIS instrument on ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser earlier today as the spacecraft approached Earth for the third and final swingby. (larger view)

Closest approach is due at 08:45 CET, 13 November 2009. Follow Rosetta’s progress at ESA’s dedicated Rosetta site and via the Rosetta Blog.
 
The OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System) is a wide-angle camera and a narrow-angle camera to obtain high-resolution images of the comet’s nucleus and the asteroids that Rosetta passes on its voyage to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will help in identifying the best landing sites.

Principal Investigator: H.U. Keller, MPAe, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany
Rosetta is also investigating a cosmic mystery: a gravitational anomaly that has baffled scientists for two decades.