Crescent Earth #2
Another crescent Earth image. So lovely…
This image was taken by ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser, which is planned to explore Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When it reached there in 2014, it’ll release a small lander onto the icy nucleus, then spend the next two years orbiting the comet as it heads towards the Sun.
However, Rosetta needs some gravity assists to get to the comet – 3 from Earth and 1 from Mars. Today it’ll swingby Earth for its last gravity assist before heading out to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, flying-by asteroid Lutetia on the way.
And since it’s around, Rosetta grabs the opportunity to observe both the Earth and Moon, snaps some nice pictures and does some science.
My Dark Sky 
[…] wrote about Rosetta before when it swingby our planet for a gravity assist last November and snap a lovely picture of our […]
Asteroid Lutetia and Saturn in 1 Picture!! « My Dark Sky said this on July 11, 2010 at 2:28 pm |