Rosetta's Farewell
After closely following
comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for 786 days as it
rounded the Sun, the
Rosetta
spacecraft's controlled impact
with the comet's surface was confirmed by the
loss of signal from the
spacecraft on September 30, 2016.
One of the images taken during its final descent,
this high resolution view
looks across the comet's stark landscape.
The scene spans just over 600 meters (2,000 feet),
captured when Rosetta was about 16 kilometers from the comet's surface.
Rosetta's descent to the comet brought to an end the operational phase
of an inspirational mission of space exploration.
Rosetta deployed a
lander to the surface
of one of the Solar System's
most primordial worlds and witnessed first hand how a comet
changes when subject to the increasing intensity of the Sun's radiation.
The decision to end the mission on the surface is a result of
the comet's orbit
now taking it to the dim reaches beyond Jupiter where
there would be a lack of power to operate the spacecraft.
Mission operators also faced an approaching period
where the Sun would be close to line-of-sight between
Earth and Rosetta, making radio communications increasingly difficult.