News

by Dr Simon Green, the Open University

by Andrew Coates, University College London

by David Rothery and Matt Balme, The Open University

By Monica Grady, The Open University

by Iwan Williams, Queen Mary University of London

by Andrew Morse, The Open University

By Ian Wright, The Open University

There is much excitement about Rosetta at the moment. The European Space Agency’s spacecraft has already made a successful rendezvous with a comet and the images that are being transmitted back are simply awe-inspiring. There is much more to come – the spacecraft will ride alongside the comet for at least another year.

67P on 3rd August 2014. Copyright: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Rosetta has become the first spacecraft to rendezvous with a comet, having successfully intercepted comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the 6th of August 2014 after a journey spanning 10 years.

As Rosetta has come closer to comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko, images have been produced showing the comet's unusual shape. On the 1st of August a new image from the orbiter's OSIRIS camera was released showing the surface of comet 67P in more detail.

Comet-chasing Rosetta mission gives local school students the chance to reach for the stars

Students from Walton High in Milton Keynes have been finding out that the sky is definitely not the limit when it comes to research at The Open University (OU). As part of their digital media production course, ten BTEC students visited the OU’s campus at Walton Hall to find out more about its work on Europe’s comet-chasing spacecraft, Rosetta – the world’s first mission to land on a comet.