Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Rosetta's first selfie

Today the ESA had published some photos that were took in the Valentine's day by Rosetta to the comet 67P. One of them in particular shows Rosetta's own shadow.
This photo is the highest resolution one ver made to this comet and was took while sweeping 6km above comet 67P surface.

The photo was able to happen only because of the sun position (just behind the satellite), in what is called a "zero phase" angle. As a result of this, we could consider that as the first interstellar selfie ever made, if you consider that the shadow is a part of Rosetta and not just a consequence of the satellite obstructing the sun light.

Photo of Rosetta´s shadow took by Rosetta satellite
© European space agency

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