Self-taken photographs, also known as "selfies," are plastered all over the internet particularly in social networking sites. The selfie phenomenon has swept across continents on Earth but it has apparently also managed to reach the outer space.
The Rosetta spacecraft, which was deployed by the European Space Agency, or ESA, to conduct a detailed study of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, may be away from home but it appears to have not been left behind by Earthly trends.
On Tuesday, Sept. 9, ESA released a photo of the spacecraft it described as "Rosetta mission selfie at comet." The "selfie" was of course taken with more sophisticated equipment than the DSLRs and monopods that Earth dwellers use. The Comet Infrared and Visible Analyser (CIVA) camera which is attached to the spacecraft's robotic Philae lander that was designed to land on the comet, snapped the image when Rosetta was about 50 kilometers from its target comet.
The CIVA camera, which will be used to document the surface of comet 67P once the lander has successfully landed, captured the side of Rosetta and one of the spacecraft's 14 meter-long solar wings with comet 67P as the backdrop. The image ESA released was actually a combination of two images with different exposure times to reveal the faint details of the spacecraft and comet.
"Simply stunning! @Philae2014's CIVA camera snapped this pic of @ESA_Rosetta at comet #67P," the ESA described the photo on Twitter.
Rosetta was launched in March 2004 with the objective of rendezvousing with comet 67P to study its environment and nucleus for about two years as well as land the 100kg Philae lander.
Scientists and engineers have been looking at potential landing sites for the lander, which is scheduled to land on the comet's surface on Nov. 11, since the Rosetta arrived at a distance of 100 km from the comet on Aug. 6. Five candidate locations have been identified for assessment last month and the ESA is scheduled to reveal the primary landing site at its headquarters in Paris, France on Monday next week.
"After landing, Rosetta will continue to accompany the comet until its closest approach to the Sun in August 2015 and beyond, watching its behavior from close quarters to give us a unique insight and realtime experience of how a comet works as it hurtles around the Sun," Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said.
Rosetta isn't the only spacecraft known to take pictures of itself. The Mars Curiosity Rover of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is also known for its love of selfies.
