back to article ESA sends back PRE-LANDING COMET CLOSE-UPS

The European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe is preparing to make history by dropping a fridge-sized lander on the surface of a comet. ESA has scheduled Philae's detachment from Rosetta for 09:03 GMT on 12 November, and the agency hopes for a landing at 16:02 GMT. But before this pioneering mission concludes, Rosetta has …

  1. Ragarath

    Clanger in that hole?

    I'm sure I can see a clanger in that hole, is this how they traverse space?

    1. Message From A Self-Destructing Turnip

      Re: Clanger in that hole?

      "OHHHH Sod it! The bloody things stuck again!"

  2. Ashton Black

    Scale.

    These are great, amazing, in fact. But I wish there was something to give it a sense of scale. I know it's from 10km up, but as with a lot of these things, it's sort of fractal, therefore impossible to guess the scale. How big is that Cheops boulder, for example? 10m? 100m? 1km?

    A minor whinge, I admit and I am still in awe of the achievement of putting a probe so close to an actual comet. Looking forward to the landing!

    1. Graham Cunningham

      Re: Scale.

      This single-frame NAVCAM image measures 1024 x 1024 pixels. It was captured from a distance of 9.9 km from the centre of the comet (about 7.7 km from the surface) at 02:22 GMT on 15 October 2014. At this distance, the image resolution is 84.6 cm/pixel and the size of the image is 866 x 866 m.

      This work is licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO) licence. The user is allowed to reproduce, distribute, adapt, translate and publicly perform this publication, without explicit permission, provided that the content is accompanied by an acknowledgement that the source is credited as 'European Space Agency - ESA', a direct link to the licence text is provided and that it is clearly indicated if changes were made to the original content. Adaptation/translation/derivatives must be distributed under the same licence terms as this publication. To view a copy of this license, please visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/

      Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

      http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Highlights/Top_10_at_10_km

    2. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: Scale.

      Cheops boulder is 45m across, 25m high.

    3. Vulch

      Re: Scale.

      http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/11/look-at-the-size-of-that-comet-rosetta-is-chasing-compared-to-a-747/

      As it says, bits of the comet with a 747 to give an idea of scale.

      1. Simon Harris

        Re: Scale.

        They should have used a picture of a De Havilland Comet!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Scale.

      The question of scale has never been explained better than on the TV series 'UFO' with the help of Gabrielle Drake.... (SFW)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NpZ18GR_E

      4:58 - 7.08

      Funny I never forgot it after all these years................

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Scale.

        Funny I never forgot it after all these years................

        Yes, nubile young moon girls in silver miniskirts have that odd effect on me too :-)

      2. Zog_but_not_the_first
        Pint

        Re: Scale.

        Eek! My first thought and as I was about to post....

        Pint for a like-minded codger.

    5. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Scale.

      I'm waiting for UKIP to stand up and get all shouty, shouty about the waste of taxpayers' money. Just imagine how much better the UKSA's comet mission would be if it didn't have to kowtow to those bureaucratic fools at ESA headquarters!

      1. Bleu

        Re: Scale.

        Irrelevant comment. The ESA is not an organ of the EU.

        Nice photographs!

        1. Not That Andrew

          Re: Scale.

          I realy doubt that would stop them. They are even more aggressively ignorant than the Tories

        2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Re: Scale.

          @bleu

          Irrelevant comment. The ESA is not an organ of the EU.

          I never said it was. But when has that ever stopped the swivel-eyed loons? They also fulminate against the ECHR which also isn't part of the EU.

          Anyway, you seem to be suffering from an irony deficit. The UK's contribution to the ESA is paltry largely because Maggie decided space research wasn't worth investing in.

          The same arguments, of course, can also be heard over the water by UKIP's six-fingered, small government Tea Party cousins: guns are great, research is a waste of time.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cool

    The first pic looks like les dent du midi in Switzerland. Except more sideways.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: Cool

      I am rather reminded of the Medeiran interior. Very gritty heaps of eroded volcanic crud which somehow look large when seen from afar.

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Cool

      I was thinking of the mesa from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It must be a fake!!!!

  4. bigphil9009

    Staggering Pictures

    Somehow I had always had the impression that comets were just amorphous blobs, almost sponge-like, but these pictures really show just how interesting they can be. How did those "mountains" form? Where have they been?

    Science - it rocks!

    1. Tiny Iota
      Coat

      Re: Staggering Pictures

      Geology - it's rocks!

      1. Fibbles
        Trollface

        Re: Staggering Pictures

        *cough*

      2. WraithCadmus
        Coat

        Re: Staggering Pictures

        Geology - it's rocks!

        At uni my brother got them to use...

        Geology - It's the schist!

  5. TimR

    Re Scale

    "It measures about 45 m across and 25 m high" - www.esa.int

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    First Hand?

    Wouldn't she need to be at the comet to witness it first hand?

    1. TheProf
      Devil

      Re: First Hand?

      I hope her review is more positive than the ones she gave Doctor Who.

  7. Bunbury
    Happy

    then touch down seven hours later at about 4pm

    Splendid. Just in time for tea. Well done chaps

    1. fawlty

      Re: then touch down seven hours later at about 4pm

      What are those measurements in Reg Standard units please?

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: then touch down seven hours later at about 4pm

        I was wondering that myself. And then even more about the schedule: we need El Reg Coordinated Timezones!

        RLT – Reg standard lunchtime: 13:00

        RTT – Reg standard tea time: 16:00 except on Fridays

        RBT – Reg standard booze time: 18:00 except on Fridays when it's 13:00

  8. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    Forget about the one round hole

    The whole area looks like a honeycomb to me.

  9. asphytxtc

    >> Cheops boulder is 45m across, 25m high.

    > What are those measurements in Reg Standard units please?

    Roughly 0.32 brontosaurus' across by 178.57 linguine high :)

    Not bad for something shooting across the heavens at 0.89% velocity of a sheep in a vacuum!

    1. Russell Hancock

      This sir, this is why I read el reg...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It looks more hospitable than Peckham Rye.

  11. Bucky 2
    Alien

    Evidence of Aliens

    The second picture clearly shows the outline of a sea turtle.

    This can only mean that the comet is a spacecraft returning to determine the disposition of their ancient Earth colony.

    Because, what are the ODDS, MAN, the ODDS that the outline of a sea turtle would just show up BY CHANCE???

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Evidence of Aliens

      It's not the turtle that can cause concern -- it's the elephants.

  12. Jeff Wojciechowski

    Gravity Boots

    Does this thing have enough gravity to hold the lander down on the surface? Or did they invent some sort of gravity boots/claws/put gum on the feet of the lander?

    1. Elmer Phud

      Re: Gravity Boots

      Nope - it's a bit like one of them big inflatabe 'fly paper' thingies with a suit and industrial strength Velcro -- land on it and grab on.

    2. JaimieV

      Re: Gravity Boots

      Two harpoons and a screw (aka a good night out on a whaling boat)

  13. ecofeco Silver badge
    Coat

    Is that a rocket probe?

    Or are you just glad to see me?

    (Guess what's in my pocket) ----------------------------->>

  14. x 7

    "Or did they invent some sort of gravity boots/claws/put gum on the feet of the lander?"

    The deck landing system from the Westland Navy Lynx should work well, with its locking dart and cable winchdown

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Barreling along

    "This is likely to be a tricky endeavour because humanity has never before attempted to land on a huge rock as it speeds through space at 60,000kmph."

    I feel pedantic today, so...

    It's not "a rock," unless ice is counted as a mineral. There might be rocks in it, tho.

    Also, every time a plane comes down it endeavours to land on a huge speeding rock (called "Earth"), but somehow that is not considered exciting news. Very odd, considering that the relative speeds involved are much greater for the planes than for that lander.

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Barreling along

      Although maintaining the pedantry, a better example considering the context, might be to compare with landing on the Moon and Mars in terms of "attempted to land on a huge rock as it speeds through space".

      I don't see the point in mentioning the speed of said rock since the speed means nothing without a reference point and the only valid reference in space is the relative speed difference between the two objects concerned.

      1. Hans 1
        Holmes

        Re: Barreling along

        >I don't see the point in mentioning the speed of said rock since the speed means nothing without a reference point and the only valid reference in space is the relative speed difference between the two objects concerned.

        It just means you have to get to the same speed as the comet, or as close as possible, which might be a challenge, even in space. Imagine the thrust, the direction, the orbiting to meet up with a comet doing 18.3km/s ... yes, km/s, something like 12 miles/s.

        It indeed might be the relative speed that counts, and also, the 28 minutes it takes for the signals to reach the craft/earth ... that is like playing Crysis on a 1Mhz 8086.

  16. Winkypop Silver badge
    Alien

    Newest National Park?

    Take only pictures and leave only ice-screw marks.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Newest National Park?

      So when it breaks up we get more parks at no additional cost? I like it!

  17. Stoneshop
    WTF?

    Someone's been there before

    and drawn the outline of Australia in the dirt (second pic)

  18. Chris Evans

    Photo enhancement?

    I'd love to see the photo's before as well as after enhancement. Just for comparison to the enhancement CSI manage:-)

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Landscape

    So guys what caused the bizarre landscape the comet condones; not only this particular one? Do you believe its gravitational fissure of solar radiation when these comets enter the inner solar system or is it just caused by other spacial objects in the Kuiper belt divulging multiple contact with the comet?

    Because by these newly released pictures and supposedly the ones we are yet to receive post-landing i can clearly visualize that the comet had no direct contact with other comets, taking the moon as a sample.

    So the question is: Do you believe that the comet with its chemical properties is affected by solar radiation or gravitational pull to the sun?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Landscape

      ...other spacial objects...

      I see what you did there. ;-)

      BTW, I bet ALL comets condone bizarre landscapes; it's a 'thing' with them.

  20. Brandon 2

    ahem... has been done ONCE before... in 2003

    "This is likely to be a tricky endeavour because humanity has never before attempted to land on a huge rock as it speeds through space at 60,000kmph."

    Just google Hyabusa lands on asteroid...

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