Rosetta’s clock is ticking, but the probe is using its final weeks around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to snap the best pictures yet of the comet.
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) probe is scheduled to purposefully crash land on September 30, bringing the hugely successful mission to an end. Rosetta, which entered orbit around the comet in August 2014, will be aiming to descend very close to an incredible feature, named Deir el-Medina, that could provide new insights on how comets form.
Deir el-Medina is a large pit on the comet's smaller lobe that is more than 130 meters (430 feet) across and 50 to 60 meters (165 to 200 feet) deep. The interior surface of the pit is covered in lumpy meter-sized structures. The curious geological formation, nicknamed "goosebumps", is believed to be a signature of the early cometesimal, the modest structure that early in the Solar System's history fused into forming the comet.
Deir el-Medina, named after a pit in ancient Egypt, is one of several pits in the region known as Ma’at where Rosetta will be landing. These pits are the active sites where the dust of the comet originates, and close-up data could give us even more clues on how comets change over time.
"Last month we celebrated two thrilling years since arriving at the comet, and also a year since the comet's closest approach to the Sun along its orbit," said Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist, in a statement.
"It's hard to believe that Rosetta's incredible 12.5-year odyssey is almost over, and we're planning the final set of science operations, but we are certainly looking forward to focusing on analyzing the reams of data for many decades to come."
The impressive suite of instruments onboard of Rosetta will continue to collect data during the final descent, although which ones will be operational is yet to be decided, and it will depend on the final trajectory and the data rate available for the day.
Rosetta has been flying pretty close to the comet, and it may be getting closer still in the upcoming days, maybe even just 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the surface. Being so near the surface makes it difficult to precisely plot trajectories, so the final details will not be known until after September 24, when the probe completes a post-flyover maneuver. Afterward, the team will continue to correct the trajectory until the spacecraft is put on its final plummet on September 30 at around 6.40am EDT (11.40am BST).
