The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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An example of the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera mosaics being used to search for Rosetta’s lander, Philae. The image is a slightly cropped 2 x 2 mosaic comprising images taken on 13 December 2014 from a distance of about 20 km to the centre of the comet. The lander, about 1 m across – the size of a household washing machine – would measure only about three pixels across in these images. The team are searching – by eye – for a set of three spots that correspond to the lander shape, but with the region strewn with boulders it is soon easy to identify multiple sets of three spots.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA