10 New Rosetta Images Reveal Comet 67P In All Its Glory

sciencehabit writes: The first scientific results from Rosetta at comet 67P have been published, and they detail a surprising diversity of features on the 4-kilometer-long duck-shaped comet. The discoveries include images from Rosetta's main science camera, OSIRIS, which reveal 67P to be a far more varied place than anyone expected. The article summarizes a trove of scientific papers that were published today about comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The best part? They're all freely available.

duck or...

[CresCoJeff]

...porygon? It's too angular to be a good duck; I vote porygon.

Re:duck or...

[Livius]

And is it lighter or heavier than a duck? It might be a witch.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The current comet shape model suggests that the mass is 1013 kg (about 100 million times the mass of the international space station), with a bulk density of ~470 kg/m3 (similar to cork, wood, or aerogel). The low mass and density values strongly constrain the composition and internal structure of the nucleus, implying a relatively fluffy nature, with a porosity of 70 to 80% (Sierks et al., this issue). The nucleus surface itself appears rich in organic materials, with little sign of water ice (Capaccioni e

Re:duck or...

[daremonai]

That's 10^13 kg, of course.

So, it's heavier than a duck - in fact, since ducks average only a little over a kilogram, and the worldwide population of ducks is likely only on the order of a billion or so, it's heavier than all the ducks in the world put together.

On the other hand, its density implies it would float.

Hmm, I'd recommend burning it, just to be on the safe side. Perhaps the Sun can see to that.

Re:

[rubycodez]

yet I see only four out of dozens that would be a truly piss poor choice for a raft

Re:

[wonkey_monkey]

- He's headed for that small porygon!
- That's no porygon. It's a duck.
- It's too angular to be a duck.
- I have a bad feeling about this...

Re:

[rubycodez]

I'm not saying it was an alien stone duck......... but it was an alien stone duck!

Re:

[Hussman32]

Yeah, reading the day after, I gotta agree.

life force

[bumba2014]

any one thinking about the movie life force (1985), when they started landing on meteorites...?

Re:

[camperdave]

no as I was of that age where I would have been too distracted by the 'nakid boobies' I don't actually remember the plot.

You say that as if there is an age when you're no longer distracted by 'nakid boobies'.

I Wish

[rotorbudd]

I remember watching Alan Shepard's launch on a black and white TV in elementary school, and 50 years later we're getting hd pictures back from the surface of a comet.
Sure would like to live another 50 just to see what the hell is coming down the line for us.

Re:

[ColdWetDog]

All you need to do is to be rich and gullible [slashdot.org].

Publicly funded....

[aaron4801]

....but most of the images are locked up for six months. [techdirt.com]

Re:Publicly funded....

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Half a year seems like a sensible policy to me. It's not like there will be another encounter with another comet this year. The worst thing that could happen is that an outsider can't hint at something interesting that would warrant closer inspection by the probe as long as it is active - something the scientists involved would miss - but the chances of that seem minuscule (a lot of research is most certainly pre-planned, and the science teams have eyes of their own).

Re:

[DerekLyons]

but most of the images are locked up for six months. [techdirt.com]

Seems a fair trade to me, given the scientists involved has spent anywhere from years to decades working on this project and aren't exactly getting rich in the process.

Maybe, but the approach is looking increasingly anachronistic. That's partly because of a new kind of real-time public engagement with science thanks to the Internet; but it's also to do with changes in the way raw scientific data is made available.

Um, no. The public avidl

Re:

[wooferhound]

Images fresh out of the camera
http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/ [nasa.gov]

Philae

[camperdave]

Did they re-establish contact with the lander, yet?