As the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft closes in on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, it is taking photos, including one of its self, as well as one close-up of the comet that shows a strange pyramid-shaped boulder on its surface.
Rosetta took its selfie with the CIVA camera on the spacecraft's Philae Lander. This image shows a good view of the comet's activity, including jets of gas and dust streaming from it.
This image is actually a combination of two photos taken one right after the other, but with different exposures.
Another photo captured by Rosetta, though, turned up a strange pyramid-shaped rock on the comet's surface. The Rosetta team calls this boulder "Cheops," named after the largest pyramid in Giza, Egypt. Although Rosetta took the first photographs of Cheops in August, these new photos show the feature in detail.
The boulder is huge, about 147 feet wide and its surface is "very craggy and irregular," according to OSIRIS Principal Investigator Holger Sierks, from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.
"Especially intriguing are small patches on the boulder's surface displaying the same brightness and texture as the underground," says Sierks. "It looks almost as if loose dust covering the surface of the comet has settled in the boulder's cracks. But, of course, it is much too early to be sure."
Rosetta took photos from about 9 miles above the surface of the comet, but is now moving closer to get better shots.
Cheops is just another mystery about Rosetta that the ESA hopes to solve after the Philae Lander arrives on the comet's surface on November 12.
Rosetta launched in 2004 and has spent ten years chasing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In August, 2014, Rosetta became the first spacecraft to orbit a comet. Next month, it will be the first spacecraft to land a robotic vehicle, the Philae Lander, on the surface of a comet.
Scientists hope that this mission will shed light on the presence of organic molecules on comets, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Scientists consider these elements crucial ingredients for life. So Rosetta, and its lander, could confirm the theory that life on Earth was seeded by comets from the stars.
