The Rossetta captures a scene of comet formation

While on the way to the "rendezvous" with comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P), ESA's Rossetta spacecraft finally spotted the target and a comet head - the faint glare created by the ice and The dust is growing around the core of 67P due to being warmed as it approaches the Sun. Located at a distance of 600 million kilometers from the Sun, the opportunity to be observed at the beginning of the comet's beginning at such a distance promises to expand our understanding of the life of a comet when it is Journey into the solar system.

>>>Comet is in Rosetta's sights

Professor Ros Castelli, program director at the British Space Agency, said: "Rosetta is a great mission for England so we are very excited to see the first images of comets 67P when It's made up of a comet head, made and designed primarily in the UK, scientists here have worked with 10 equipment on board and we look forward to making history with tracking progress. development of this comet as it flies around the Sun ".

Since leaving Earth in March 2004 and having just been reactivated after 31 months of a break, Rosetta has spent more than 10 years in an 11-year mission to meet comet 67P. At the time of the meeting, the journey Rosetta experienced was more than 6 billion kilometers, four times flying through planets in which three times flew over Earth and once through Mars to supplement the velocity thanks to gravity from the This planet and make a dangerous journey through the meteorite belt.

The ship's OSIRIS imaging system has now begun to capture images of volatile gases rising from the surface of 67P - which entails waves containing numerous tiny dust particles to form one end of the comet around it. This excited scientists with the prospect that the Philae probe and Ptolemy tool package would be released from Rosetta and landed on the surface of comet 67P later this year.

Rosetta drops the Philae probe into the 67P surface

"It is truly amazing to see these images and witness the beginning of the comet phase. The Ptolemy toolkit team could not wait any longer to begin exploration. face and perform measurements on the body of the comet, " said professor of planetary science at the British Open University - Ian Wright.

Previous observations about 67P have revealed that it has changed the brightness periodically every few hours, whereby the OSIRIS imaging system team can more accurately determine the comet's rotation cycle. The results show that 67P turns a round of 12.4 hours, 20 minutes shorter than what they estimated.