Not Your Ordinary Comet

Our space program may be quieter these days but that doesn't mean space exploration is dormant. In about a week the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft will rendezvous with a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G). Rosetta's been chasing it for ten years. Once an orbit is established around this odd- looking comet, instruments will study its composition and physical geography. The big day comes in November when Rosetta sends a rover to the comet's surface. 

Here's the latest 67P/C-G photograph released earlier today: 

Credit: ESA/Rosetta?MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

It looks a bit like a grain of sand or pollen viewed through a microscope. In fact the comet hardly registers on the universal scale - it's only four kilometers or 2.5 miles wide at its greatest dimension. One could say we have been chasing a grain of sand for a decade and we are about to land a spacecraft on it. 

Over the next several months our friends at ESA will have much to study and celebrate. We here in the U.S. can celebrate as well. Rosetta may not be "our" project but it does have plenty of NASA instrumentation aboard. Space junkies should stay tuned.