Comets – Spaceflight Now

Hubble catches best glimpse yet of interstellar interloper

December 15, 2019 Stephen Clark

A comet originating from outside our solar system has been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope as it made its closest approach to the sun earlier this month.

Hubble observes interstellar visitor

October 16, 2019 Stephen Clark

The Hubble Space Telescope has returned an image of a comet that originated outside our solar system, providing astronomers with their best view yet of an interstellar visitor at a distance of 260 million miles from Earth.

European space mission to get close-up view of new comet

June 21, 2019 Stephen Clark

A new flyby mission selected by the European Space Agency this week for launch in 2028 will be the first to intercept a new comet or interstellar object fresh from the frozen depths of the outer solar system, or beyond.

Gravitational wave testbed repurposed as comet dust detector

April 26, 2017 Stephen Clark

In the final months of Europe’s LISA Pathfinder mission, scientists have found an unexpected use for the trailblazing testbed for a future gravitational wave observatory by tracking the tiny dings made by microscopic particles that strike the spacecraft in deep space, exploiting the impacts to learn about the population of dust grains cast off by comets and asteroids across the solar system.

Rosetta’s comet shows scars from swing through inner solar system

March 22, 2017 Stephen Clark

Scientists examining imagery from Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft have logged numerous changes to the face of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, from collapsing cliffs to a growing crack through the comet’s neck that could foretell the eventual unraveling of the city-sized icy world.

Rosetta’s last photos of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

October 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Just before settling to a soft crash landing Friday, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft captured close-range images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, peering into a stadium-sized pit and recording a final dataset to keep scientists busy long after the mission’s end.

Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown

September 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a slow-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up introduction to a class of objects which has stimulated imaginations for millennia.

Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours

September 30, 2016 Stephen Clark

Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft closed out a historic 4.9-billion-mile journey Friday with a slow-speed crash into the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the tiny world it has studied for the last two years, capturing some of the mission’s best science data to help unravel the inner workings of the comet. Confirmation of the crash landing arrived on Earth at 1119 GMT (7:19 a.m. EDT).

Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission

September 29, 2016 Spaceflight Now

Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing

September 29, 2016 William Harwood

The European Space Agency’s $1.6 billion Rosetta spacecraft closed in Thursday for a deliberate crash landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Friday, a slow-motion kamikaze plunge to bring the enormously successful mission to an end after more than two years of unprecedented close-range observations.