An astrophotographer has spotted what looks to be a lunar month orbiting the comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko , the target of the European Space Agency ’s Rosetta Mission .
The Rosetta mission establish in 2004 , and arrived at 67P in 2014 . Aside from producing lots of interesting data point as well asthrills , it also station many image of the comet back to Earth . These photo continue to concede interesting findings .
Comets are icy solar system rock that typically have oblong orbits and , when they get close to the Sun , heat up and emit natural gas and junk to make an atmosphere - like “ coma ” and sometimes a tail . 67P is one such model , a two - lobed objective measure up to 2.5 miles across on its foresighted lobe and 1.6 miles across on its short lobe . Its orbit take it close to the itinerary of Earth and Jupiter . The Rosetta delegation was the first to land a human being - made objective on a comet ( though the landing place was jumpy ) . The mission also spy 67p ’s molecular oxygen , the form that exists on Earth , which could date stamp back to the other solar system of rules .
The 13-foot-wide moon.Image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger
Rosetta watched the comet be sick gas and dust as it go up the Sun , creating the coma , beginning in the summer of 2015 . This image shows a 13 - foot clod of the comet that seemed to be ejected during the outgassing result on October 21 , 2015 . AstrophotographerJacint Rogerfound the speck while mining the Rosettaimage archivesto make one of his gifs . Scientists reviewed the icon and give chase the object as it appear to orb Rosetta until October 23 . The object is the magnanimous such chunk found around the comet yet , accord toan ESA release .
ESA researcher Julia Marín - Yaseli de la Parra has dubbed objects like these “ Churymoons , ” fit in to the release .
ESA ’s researchers are interested in the size and shape of these firearm of debris , and whether they change as the comet hold out its sphere . They hope to figure out whether the dust ’s properties are shift by process chance inside of the comet , or if the dust has been the same since the comet first form , concord toone research abstract .
Gif: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/OSIRIS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA/J. Roger
Many space missions , from the Mars rovers to Rosetta , have sent numberless images back to Earth that are gratis for you to access . You , too , can produce gifs or artwork from this visual data . Maybe you ’ll even discover something interesting .
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