General , Science  06 November, 2009 14:59

Science during the swingby: OSIRIS & MIRO - 'ON'

Though time will be short, several science observations are planned around the swingby to exploit Rosetta's unique perspective and powerful instrument suite. 

The planned observations include imaging with the scientific camera system OSIRIS, an attempt to look for water on the Moon with MIRO, study of the magnetosphere with the suite of Rosetta plasma instruments, and observations of Earth's atmosphere and a search for aurorae.

OSIRIS Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System: A Wide-Angle Camera and a Narrow-Angle Camera to obtain high-resolution images of asteroids, the comet nucleus and to help in identifying the best landing sites. The orbiter's scientific payload includes 11 experiments, in addition to the lander. Scientific consortia from institutes across Europe and the United States have provided these state-of-the-art instruments. All of them are located on the side of the spacecraft that will permanently face the comet during the main scientific phase of the mission. Credits: ESA/AOES Medialab

The instruments will be turned on one-by one starting today and will stay on through the swingby.

The goal of the swingby is to assist Rosetta to ultimately reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for its prime mission. This means that spacecraft operations will have priority over science activities on 13 November. 

An artist's impression of the OSIRIS imaging system. (ESA/AOES Medialab)

During the two nights before closest approach (13 November) and one night afterwards, members of the Rosetta team will conduct observations from ESA's Optical Ground Station in Tenerife, Spain. They will also carry out an experiment to investigate whether a laser beam can be detected by OSIRIS.

More info on the instruments here:

ESA website
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEM1AF374OD_0.html

Max Planck Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Lindau (OSIRIS principal investigator)
http://www.mps.mpg.de/en/projekte/rosetta/osiris/

See some OSIRIS images taken during past swingbys/flybys in our media galleries:

Rosetta Blog gallery

ESA multimedia gallery

-- Amruta

[ (0) Comments ] | [ (0) Trackbacks ] | [Permalink]
General , Optical observation  06 November, 2009 09:50

Tips for sky junkies III: finder charts

After a request posted in our blog from Detlef Koschny, an ESA colleague and a keen amateur star watcher, Kristin Wirth from the Rosetta science team has just sent us three finder charts, corresponding to inbound approach, point of closest approach and outbound recession. ((Thank you, Kristin!!)) These will help you know where to look for Rosetta in the sky.

Please note, however, that - even with these finder charts - actually spotting Rosetta will still be a challenge and is probably something that a more experienced amateur may wish to attempt. Note that our finder charts are relatively large scale and may be too crude to give exact help. Also, our finder charts are based on an observer's location on Tenerife; those elsewhere in Europe will find them less helpful.

Kristin wrote:

In earlier blog postings (here and here) we already explained that Rosetta will be difficult to observe because of the weak brightness and low position on the sky. These finder charts are meant to give an overview - the two charts for approach and recession illustrate the path of Rosetta against the sky background (the magnification is so low that the observer's position is irrelevant). The chart for the night 12/13 Nov might be sufficient to find Rosetta because of its movement relative to the stars. It tells any keen astronomer where to look for it - of course, it you have an image where Rosetta still is a dot (and not a line) and you want to identify it among the stars, charts with a higher magnification and for your precise location will be needed.

Those with a bit more experience can generate custom Rosetta ephemerides (position) information on 13 November via NASA's Horizons website:

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi

Click on 'Full story' to access hi-res versions of the charts. -- Amruta

 

 Full story »

[ (0) Comments ] | [ (0) Trackbacks ] | [Permalink]
   Slideshow
Stunning image taken by the CIVA imaging instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just 4 minutes before closest approach at a distance of some 1000 km from Mars. After its closest approach to Earth, Rosetta looked back and took a number of images using the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). This particular image was acquired 15 November 2007 at 03:30 CET. The image is a colour composite of the NAC Orange, Green and Blue filters. At the bottom, the continent of Australia can be seen clearly. Credits: ESA ©2005 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/ RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA This image was taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera (NAVCAM) right after Rosetta’s closest approach to Earth. The picture was taken at 21:54 CET on 13 November, as Rosetta’s second Earth swing-by concluded, while the spacecraft was flying at a height of about 5415 km directly above 44.35° west and 64.49° south. Credits: ESA This image was taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera (NAVCAM) right after Rosetta’s closest approach to Earth. The picture was taken at 21:55 CET on 13 November, as Rosetta’s second Earth swing-by concluded, while the spacecraft was flying at a height of about 5500 km from the surface. Credits: ESA Image taken by NAVCAM A on 2010/07/06 03:45:02 UTC. Lutetia is the bright object in the middle of the 5x5 deg FOV. At that time, the distance was roughly 5.8 million km.