Rosetta Over Mars

Panels on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft appear in the foreground of this intriguing image of Mars recorded on February 25 at a range of about 1,000 kilometers. Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was near its closest approach to the Red Planet during a gravity assist flyby maneuver and is ultimately destined to rendezvous with a comet designated 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Below the comet-chasing spacecraft lies a dark boundary along the martian Syrtis region. But wait … who took the picture? The picture was actually captured by the imaging system (CIVA) onboard Rosetta’s lander, Philae, switched on for testing. The three-legged, box-shaped, 100 kilogram Philae is scheduled to attempt a landing on the comet nucleus after Rosetta’s rendezvous in November 2014.