Me And Comet 67-P, J-Chillin’
The Rosetta spacecraft beamed this to Earth on Sunday: an over-the-shoulder selfie with its intended. Visible are the comet toward which Rosetta has travelled for more than a decade, the edge of the craft, and one of its ~46-foot solar panels. The mission team is now reviewing possible landing sites on the comet’s surface.
Extraordinary Detail
Rosetta’s OSIRIS imaging system captured this image of 67P’s surface. The picture is the most detailed ever of a cometary body. The edge of each pixel corresponds to about two and a half feet of the nucleus.
And The Ground Cracked Open
Images from NASA’s Terra satellite reveal two new fissures spewing lava in Iceland last week.
Lay My Guts On The Table
About 200 years ago (give or take a decade) the scientist and vaccine pioneer Edward Jenner flattened this section of a human stomach and pumped it with wax, probably to make it into a teaching tool for his medical students.
Baby On Board
Researchers studying critically endangered Mescarene petrel in the Indian Ocean made an image believed to be the first of its kind: a mama bird with a visible baby bump.
Speaking Of Things On Board
A Mastiff Armored Vehicle sits in the bellow of a British C17 transport plane as the Royal Air Force helps the Army prepare to exit Afghanistan in July.
Before ‘Boldly Go’
The first completed crew module for NASA’s new Orion space craft sits on top of its service module at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In December, Orion will ride a Delta IV Heavy rocket to 3,600 miles above Earth.
Flying Through An Aurora
European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst tweeted this image last week, writing, “Words can’t describe how it feels flying through an #aurora. I wouldn’t even know where to begin…”
Privateers
SpaceX, the American private spaceflight company, delivers telecom satellite AsiaSat 6 into orbit from Cape Canaveral, FL.
Stellar Afterlife
NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newtown reveal the most complete and detailed X-Ray view of Puppis A, the remains of an ancient supernova, ever recorded.
