Friday, June 3, 2016

Mind-Boggling Image of Comet 67-P

My jaw actually dropped when I first saw this stunning image of the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet, as seen by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. The white flecks are stars, drifting ice & snow grains, and long dashes are cosmic ray strikes on the imager. The image is not from on the surface, but from 20km as the spacecraft dashed by in one of many orbits of the comet. There's a lot to take in, and overall the image reminds me a lot of night diving, with my headlamp illuminating a million specks of debris, swirling like this in the water, and many nights in the Arctic, where wind flings ice crystals that flash and spark in moonlight!

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