The final hours of the Rosetta mission

The final hours of the Rosetta mission Today’s Video of the Day from the European Space Agency shows the last few hours of the Rosetta mission through a series of images captured by the Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System (OSIRIS).

Thousands of high resolution pictures were acquired by a narrow-angle and wide-angle camera onboard the spacecraft, detailing the Jupiter-family comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, which is a regular visitor to our solar system. Rosetta was a European deep space probe launched on what was originally projected to be an 11.5-year mission to rendezvous, orbit, study and to land on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

On Aug. 6, 2014, at a distance of about 252 million miles (405 million kilometers) from Earth (about halfway between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter), Rosetta finally rendezvoused with the comet as it completed the last of 10 maneuvers (that began in May 2014) to adjust velocity and direction. Originally, the mission was to target comet 46P/Wirtanen but when the launch was delayed due to problems with the Ariane 5 launch vehicle, the mission was redirected to Churyumov-Gerasimenko. this means that Rosetta is reaching the end of its natural life and so 30 September was considered the optimum date to conclude the mission The final hours of the Rosetta mission as shown in video.

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By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Video Credit: European Space Agency