Target: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Mission: Rosetta

Instrument: NAVCAM

Feature: Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 329km from nucleus

Description:

"Enhanced NAVCAM image of Comet 67P/C-G taken on 27 March 2016, 329 km from the comet nucleus. In February and March, Rosetta spent several weeks at very close distances from the comet nucleus, which overfilled the field of view of the NAVCAM, providing us with striking views of the surface. During the current excursion, instead, we can enjoy again a view of the full nucleus and the environment around it.

In this CometWatch image, the small comet lobe is on the left and the large one on the right. The image was taken at a very large phase angle of about 159 degrees, meaning that the comet lies between the spacecraft and the Sun, and that all three are very close to being on the same line.

In this configuration, the nucleus appears backlit, with only a few portions of the illuminated surface visible from this view – in the upper and upper right part of the nucleus.

Thanks to the combination of a long, four-second exposure, no attenuation filter and a low-gain setting on the analogue signal processor of NAVCAM (a setting that is used to image bright targets), the image reveals the bright environment of the comet, displaying beautiful outflows of activity streaming away from the nucleus in various directions."

Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM. Click here for image page and other images of Comet 67P/C-G.
Click here for further reading about this photo.

Target: S Rings

Mission: Cassini-Huygens

Instrument: Imaging Science Subsystem – Narrow Angle

Feature: Saturn's Rings

Description:

"Most planetary rings appear to be shaped, at least in part, by moons orbiting their planets, but nowhere is that more evident than in Saturn's F ring. Filled with kinks, jets, strands and gores, the F ring has been sculpted by its two neighboring moons Prometheus (seen here) and Pandora. Even more amazing is the fact that the moons remain hard at work reshaping the ring even today.

Prometheus (53 miles, or 86 kilometers across) shapes the F ring through consistent, repeated gravitational nudges and occasionally enters the ring itself (clearing out material and creating a "gore" feature, see PIA12785). Although the gravitational force of Prometheus is much smaller than that of Saturn, even small nudges can tweak the ring particles' orbits to create new patterns in the ring.

This view looks toward the sunlit side of the rings from about 12 degrees above the ring plane. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera on Feb. 21 2016."

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/ESA. Click here for image page, and click here for further reading about Saturn's rings.

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