Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014

The Nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014

• Title Comet on 20 November – NavCam
• Released 26/11/2014 6:00 pm
• Copyright ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
• Description This mosaic comprises four individual NAVCAM images taken from 30.8 km from the centre of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 20 November 2014. The image resolution is 2.6 m/pixel and thus each original 1024 x 1024 pixel frame measured 2.7 km across. The mosaic has been slightly rescaled, rotated, and cropped, and measures roughly 4.2 x 5.0 km.
  The four individual images making up the mosaic are available via the blog: Cometwatch - 20 November
  

This week I will be sixty-five years old.  I was eight years old when I first took an interest in astronomy. In those far off days the idea of sending a robotic surveyor millions of miles and years traveling through the solar system, of placing it in orbit around the nucleus of a comet and landing a probe on the surface would have at best been considered science fiction and at worst been ridiculed as preposterous.  How lucky am I to have lived through a time of accelerating scientific development.  How proud am I of the European Space Agency in achieving this amazing scientific feat!  How pleased am I to have, in some small way and through the payment of taxes, sponsored this intellectual voyage of discovery!  How proud am I to be European! How determined am I to live long enough to witness the demise of all ignorant, xenophobic, extreme and inward looking political associations which act to destroy the unity of humanity and turn Europe into a mosaic of nationalistic enclaves!  Toot and I do not wish to return to 1950, by comparison with 2014, this decade   was crap! Toot and I know because we lived through it. We were economically poorer, public health was lower, Television was in black and white and life was generally grey and monotonous.  Joining Europe and welcoming immigrants to our islands have increased our nation's cultural diversity, our prosperity and our quality of life.  Investing our common and collective wealth in scientific and technological exploration has been both spiritually  and economically life enhancing.  So Nigel and all others like you,  if you want something different you are going to have to achieve it without Toot and me because we like it as is not as was!   AND........ ESA and NASA keep looking for evidence of intelligent life out in space because its getting harder to find it down here on earth!

Thank you ESA and Rosetta for this photograph.  A tremendous scientific feat  and a wonderful gift for my birthday.