COBS News archive

Postcards from Rosetta
August 07, 2014
Latest images from Rosetta’s comet

Orbiter Completes Maneuver to Prepare for Comet Flyby
August 07, 2014
NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has successfully adjusted the timing of its orbit around Mars as a defensive precaution for a comet's close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, 2014.

Rosetta Arrives at Target Comet
August 07, 2014
Today, after a decade-long journey chasing its target, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe, carrying three NASA instruments, became the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Rosetta: 100 kilometres to 'touchdown'
August 07, 2014
The Rosetta spacecraft is approaching just 100 kilometres from its target comet, "Chury", today. After a ten-year journey, the Bernese instrument, ROSINA, will soon "smell" the first molecules of the comet's gas tail.

How Rosetta arrives at a comet
August 06, 2014
After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, ESA's Rosetta is closing in on its target. But how does a spacecraft actually arrive at a comet?

What’s happening in Rosetta mission control today
August 05, 2014
Yesterday’s orbit correction manoeuvre (OCM) – dubbed CATP for ‘Close Approach Trajectory – pre-Insertion’ – went off without problems, delivering the desired 3.2 m/s of speed decrease.

Rosetta CometWatch – 3 August
August 04, 2014
Rosetta navigation camera (NAVCAM) image taken on 3 August 2014 at about 300 km from comet 67P/C-G. The Sun is towards the bottom of the image in the depicted orientation.

Amazing New Photo of Rosetta Comet
August 03, 2014
As the ESA's Rosetta spacecraft closes to within 1000 km of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the Rosetta science team has released a new image and made the first temperature measurements of the comet's core. The temperature data show that 67P is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

Rosetta takes comet's temperature
August 02, 2014
ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made its first temperature measurements of its target comet, finding that it is too hot to be covered in ice and must instead have a dark, dusty crust.

Rosetta's Comet: Imaging the Coma
August 01, 2014
Less than a week before Rosetta's rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, images obtained by OSIRIS, the spacecraft's onboard scientific imaging system, show clear signs of a coma surrounding the comet's nucleus.

Surface impressions of Rosetta's comet
July 28, 2014
Surface structures are becoming visible in new images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken by the scientific imaging system OSIRIS onboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. The resolution of these images is now 330 feet (100 meters) per pixel. One of the most striking features is currently found in the comet's neck region. This part of 67P seems to be brighter than the rest of the nucleus.

NASA Mars Spacecraft Prepare for Close Comet Flyby
July 27, 2014
NASA is taking steps to protect its Mars orbiters, while preserving opportunities to gather valuable scientific data, as Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring heads toward a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. The comet's nucleus will miss Mars by about 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers), shedding material hurtling at about 35 miles (56 kilometers) per second, relative to Mars and Mars-orbiting spacecraft.

New Views of the Rosetta Comet
July 25, 2014
As the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe approaches Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) for an August rendezvous, the comet's core is coming into sharper focus. Today, ESA released a new set of images and a striking 3D model of 67P's nucleus.

NEOWISE Spots a Comet That Looked Like an Asteroid
July 24, 2014
Comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina) has been observed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft just one day after passing through its closest approach to the sun. The comet glows brightly in infrared wavelengths, with a dust tail streaking more than 62,000 miles (100,000 kilometers) across the sky. Its spectacular activity is driven by the vaporization of ice that has been preserved from the time of planet formation 4.5 billion years ago.

Rosetta Spacecraft Approaching Twofold Comet
July 19, 2014
As the European Space Agency's spacecraft Rosetta is slowly approaching its destination, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet is again proving to be full of surprises. New images obtained by OSIRIS, the onboard scientific imaging system, confirm the body's peculiar shape hinted at in earlier pictures. Comet 67P is obviously different from other comets visited so far.

New Comet: C/2014 N3 (NEOWISE)
July 14, 2014
Cbet nr. 3921, issued on 2014, July 13, announces the discovery of a comet (~ magnitude 17) by the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (or NEOWISE; formerly the WISE satellite) team on images taken with the NEOWISE satellite on 2014, July 04.5. The new comet has been designated C/2014 N3 (NEOWISE).

Comet Pan-STARRS Marches Across the Sky
July 08, 2014
NASA's NEOWISE mission captured a series of pictures of comet C/2012 K1 -- also known as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies in May 2014. The comet is named after the astronomical survey project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii, which discovered the icy visitor in May 2012.

Rosetta's comet target 'releases' plentiful water
July 01, 2014
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is releasing the Earthly equivalent of two glasses of water into space every second. The observations were made by the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft on June 6, 2014. The detection of water vapor has implications not only for cometary science, but also for mission planning, as the Rosetta team prepares the spacecraft to become the first ever to orbit a comet (planned for August), and the first to deploy a lander to its surface (planned for November 11).

Rosetta Closing in on Comet
June 23, 2014
Less than half the distance between Earth and moon separates Rosetta from its destination, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The European Space Agency's (ESA) spacecraft will become the first to orbit a comet and land a probe on its nucleus. It is beginning observations and sending science data back to Earth.

New Comet: P/2014 L2 (NEOWISE)
June 16, 2014
Cbet nr. 3901, issued on 2014, June 15, announces the discovery of a comet (~ magnitude 16.5) by the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) team on images taken with the NEOWISE satellite on 2014, June 07.4. The new comet has been designated P/2014 L2 (NEOWISE).