UPDATED Close Encounter of the Cometary Kind
Hey Space Placers! UPDATE: Here is the link to the first photos of the flyby. Pretty amazing! ------------------------------------------------------- The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully maneuvered their Rosetta spacecraft to a 6 kilometer (less than 4 miles) close flyby of the periodic Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - Comet 67P for short - this Valentine’s Day at 7:41 a.m. EST. The spacecraft passed over the larger lobe of the twin lobed comet, called the Imhotep region. ESA Photo of Comet 67P Taken on 2/6/15 The flyby is Rosetta’s closest approach yet to the comet and will collect scientific data and take an amazing collection of photographs that should be available to the world on Monday. I can hardly wait for the detail on these pictures because what we have seen so far have been better than any science fiction depiction of the surface of a comet - remember the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact? Rosetta was launched in March 2004 and made 3 flyb...