APOD: 2026 October 24 – Rosetta’s Selfie
The post APOD: 2026 October 24 – Rosetta’s Selfie appeared first on NASA Science .
On October 24, 2026, the Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a captivating image from the Rosetta spacecraft. The picture captured the moment when the spacecraft was approximately 472 million kilometers away from Earth, but just 16 kilometers from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The selfie, taken on October 7, 2014, showcased a dramatic high contrast scene as bright sunlight reflected off one of Rosetta's 14-meter long solar arrays.
Two exposures were combined using the CIVA camera system aboard Rosetta's Philae lander. The lander had originally been positioned on the visible hemisphere of the smaller lobe of the comet's unique double-lobed nucleus, marking its chosen primary landing site. Shortly after its separation from Rosetta on November 12, Philae captured another image looking back toward the orbiter before beginning its descent to the comet's nucleus.
Written by urgent.news from NASA Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
