back to article Rosetta probe spots Comet 67P being buzzed by boulder

The European Space Agency (ESA) has spotted a boulder buzzing Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The rock passed by on July 30th and as the .GIF below shows it headed off into space at decent speed. The images below were captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera, which only managed to get three frames of the event. The …

  1. Mark 85

    Did it launch a probe of it's own? Turnabout, fair play, and all that.

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Escape pod

    Or garbage pod?

    1. bazza Silver badge

      Re: Escape pod

      Na, it'd have been the size and shape of a washing machine...

    2. Mystic Megabyte
      Alien

      Re: Escape pod

      Or pod pod. (as in the Invasion of the body snatchers)

    3. Vic

      Re: Escape pod

      garbage pod?

      ITYM Quagaar Warrior Assault Pod...

      Vic.

      1. Sgt_Oddball

        Re: Escape pod

        They must have looked something like a roast chicken..

  3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Get arf my land!

    NFT

  4. dajames

    Veeger!

    It's the Philae lander, now repaired and upgraded by the denizens of 67P, setting off to start a journey of galactic exploration.

  5. Elmer Phud

    Ah, Bless

    It's got a little friend

  6. Graham Marsden
    Alien

    It must be...

    ... Aliens!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It was one of the escape pods jettisoned during the fighting

    There were no life forms aboard.

  8. Norm DePlume

    So, in Vulture Central Units, that's between 7 linguine and 9 double-decker buses? Or somewhere between the length of a wolf and an Olympic swimming pool. Good to know they can narrow it down so much.

    1. AC84

      Surely you mean the maximum length of a wolf in sheep's clothing in a vacuum?

  9. herman

    Decent speed

    So, how much is 'decent speed' in furlong per fortnight? We all expect El Reg to use standard units of measure in science articles.

  10. x 7

    it was the Soup Dragon's egg

  11. Wommit
    Alien

    Was it wearing an indecent shirt?

    People need to know so they can go ballistic over nothing.

  12. cray74

    From the 2 or so .gif frames that capture the boulder, doesn't it seem to be flung off close to the rotation velocity of the comet? Or am I drawing a trend line from insufficient information?

  13. Kharkov
    Trollface

    It's dumping trash...

    It's dumping trash which, as all Star Wars fans know, means it's about to enter hyperspace.

    But we should get a good shot of the Millennium Falcon before then...

  14. Axman

    67P had reached perihelion. It obviously shot its rocks off at that point. Wouldn't you?

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