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Rosetta Images its Target

March 27, 2014
This image of comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko was taken on March 20, 2014, by the wide-angle camera of the Rosetta spacecraft's Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS).

This image of comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko was taken on March 20, 2014, by the wide-angle camera of the Rosetta spacecraft's Optical, Spectroscopic and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS). It shows a wide field 25 times larger than the diameter of the full moon. The color composite shows a background of hydrogen gas and dust clouds in the constellation Ophiuchus. The white box indicates the position of the close-up taken by the imager's narrow-angle camera, with the comet appearing towards the top of this box, close to the bright globular star cluster M107. The image was taken from a distance of about 3 million miles (5 million kilometers).

ESA member states and NASA contributed to the Rosetta mission. Airbus Defense and Space built the Rosetta spacecraft. JPL manages the US contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter and hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio developed the Rosetta orbiter's Ion and Electron Sensor (IES) and hosts its principal investigator, James Burch. The Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., developed the Alice instrument and hosts its principal investigator, Alan Stern.

More information about Rosetta is available online at www.esa.int/rosetta and http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov.

For publicly released image use, see ESA's Copyright Notice Images.

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