Rosetta: the stripe in the centre
Date: 12 November 2009
Satellite: Rosetta
Copyright: ESA/K.Wirth
Taken at 03:59 CET on 13 November 2009 with an exposure time of 2 minutes. The field is located in the constellation Cetus and spans 10 × 10 arcmin. The telescope was tracking the stars so that Rosetta appears as a stripe in the centre of the image while the stars appear as dots. Rosetta moves 3 arcminutes during the 2-minute exposure.
The brightest star in the top left corner of the image has a magnitude of 12. This is the last image taken before Rosetta's closest approach to Earth, immediately afterwards its elevation fell below 18 deg which is the limit of the telescope.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
