Photo Taken by Spacecraft Shows What It’s Like to Stand on Comet

Top video shows meteor flying over Alabama several weeks ago

The European Space Agency (ESA) released a new image of what it is like to stand on a comet, shot via the Rosetta spacecraft.

The picture was taken in 2014 before Rosetta spacecraft landed on the comet, which is known as Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta ended its mission on Sept. 30, 2016, crash-landing on the comet.

Amateur astronomer Jacint Roger Perez combined three images taken by a camera on Rosetta before it landed.

The European Space Agency (ESA) released a new image of what it is like to stand on a comet, and it was shot via the Rosetta spacecraft. ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; J. Roger – CC BY SA 4.0

“Seen in the center and left of the frame is Seth, one of the geological regions on the larger of the two comet lobes, which declines towards the smoother Hapi region on the comet’s ‘neck’ that connects the two lobes. The landscape in the background reveals hints of the Babi and Aker regions [see map below for the geologic regions on the comet, in context],” said the ESA in a statement.

It added: “The sharp profile in the lower part of the image shows the Aswan cliff, a 134 m-high scarp separating the Seth and Hapi regions. Observations performed by Rosetta not long before the comet’s perihelion, which took place on 13 August 2015, revealed that a chunk of this cliff had collapsed, a consequence of increased activity as the comet drew closer to the Sun along its orbit.”

EarthSky reported that ESA officials decided to crash Rosetta on Comet 67P after a 12-year mission because its solar panels were not able to collect enough energy.

Meteor Flyby Over Alabama

Several weeks ago, a meteor flew over Alabama, and NASA said that it was brighter than the moon.

The meteor fireball was seen by spectators as well as NASA cameras about 58 miles above Turkeytown, Alabama. It shot across the sky traveling at 53,700 miles per hour before it broke into pieces 18 miles above another Alabama city, USA Today reported.