Lander candidate

‘Before’ and ‘after’ comparison images of a promising lander candidate located near the CONSERT ellipse as seen in images from the OSIRIS Narrow-Angle Camera. Each box covers roughly 20 x 20 m on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The left-hand image shows the region as seen on 22 October (before the landing of Philae) from a distance of about 10 km from the centre of the comet, while the centre and right-hand images shows the same region on 12 and 13 December from 20 km (after landing). The candidate is seen only in the two later images.

The illumination conditions are broadly similar in the three images and the same topography can be recognised in each case. The difference in distance at which the images were taken yields a difference in resolution and thus the December images have been resampled and interpolated to match the scale of the October image. As a result, the candidate covers more pixels calculated for a Philae-sized object seen by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera from a distance of 18 km to the surface.

More information: The quest to find Philae