Rosetta and comet 67P/C-G to scale (annotated)
Date: 24 October 2014
Satellite: Rosetta
Depicts: Rosetta and comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to scale
Copyright: ESA
The Rosetta spacecraft is 32 m across, measuring from tip to tip of the solar wings. In this image, Rosetta is to the right, at 10 km from the surface of the 4.1 km-wide comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image of the comet was taken by Rosetta's navigation camera.
Unlike typical artist's impressions, this composition is properly scaled to show the vast difference in size between Rosetta and the comet. The spacecraft is 128 times smaller than the comet. The circle shows a zoom on Rosetta.
Rosetta arrived at the comet at an altitude of 100 km in the first week of August 2014, and moved progressively closer over the following two months. It reached 10 km distance from the comet's centre by October 2014.
Click here for this image without annotations.
