Icy patches in the Imhotep region on comet 67P/C-G
Date: 18 September 2015
Satellite: Rosetta
Depicts: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Copyright: See below
Colour images of the Imhotep region on Comet 67P/C-G, taken with the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Rosetta on 18 June (upper row), 2 July (middle row) and 11 July 2015 (lower row). The first column shows images taken in the orange filter (649 nanometres); the second column shows the ratio between images taken with the blue filter (481 nanometres) and the orange filter for the 18 June and 2 July images, and the ratio between images taken with the blue and the red (701 nanometres) filters for the 11 July image; the third column shows a composite obtained by combining the images in the previous two columns.
The yellow arrows indicate some of the new features that were detected on Imhotep. These colour images show that some patches on the surface of the comet reflect orange/red light less effectively and blue light more effectively than their surroundings. They appear as white in the central column, where the colour ratio is shown. This indicates the presence of frozen water ice at or just below the surface of these patches.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
