Rosetta captures footage of Comet 67P tumbling through space

(Photo Credit: Rosetta/ESA/MPS for OSIRIS Team et al.)

In 30 days, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Just 28623km separates them and the craft’s on board narrow-angle camera is providing much clearer images than before.

The animation above was assembled from 36 images acquired last week as the craft was about 86000km from 67P, showing the comet distinctively rotating and tumbling over a period of 12.4 hours 

Rosetta discovers Comet 67P releases two small glasses of water every second

(A close-up view of comet 67P taken by Rosetta’s OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera – Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS)

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has found that comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko releases the equivalent of two small glasses of water into space every second. 

ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft prepares to orbit and land on comet

(Artist’s conception of Rosetta and its lander, Philae – Photo Credit: ESA/J. Huart)

In less than 40 days, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The pair are now around 500 million km from Earth, and after completing a number of big thruster burns to slow the comet chaser’s speed relative to 67P, they are separated by only 1,15,792 km.

New study finds Titan’s atmosphere may be older than Saturn

(Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

It’s well accepted that moons form after planets, but new research suggests Saturn’s moon Titan may have formed before its parent planet. Nitrogen found in Titan’s atmosphere predates Saturn and is thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of icy rocks surrounding the solar system that is the cold birthplace of the most ancient comets. The finding rules out the possibility that Titan formed within the warm disk surrounding an infant Saturn.

NASA reveal 12 futuristic designs that could help explore the solar system

(Artist’s conception of the WRANGLER proposal: Photo Credit: NASA)

NASA’s has selected 12 technology proposals, that could be used in the distant future of space exploration, to undergo further study in the first phase of the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme.

Unique Camelopardalids meteor shower expected May 23rd to 24th

(Photo credit & copyright: Jeff Dai)

A meteor shower that has never been seen before is expected Friday evening through until Saturday morning, and scientists predict it could be spectacular.