robinsherman19
The Adventures of Philae
At last the area of Philae's final landing has started to become illuminated. This NAVCAM image taken on 9th of March is overexposed, but it shows clearly many of the surface features previously hidden by shadows.
Philae's alcove, Abydos, unfortunately still appears to be partially shaded in this shot, but as the Sun is quite quickly moving South now, it should not be too long before a lot more sunlight reaches Philae.
The large number of Southern facing overhangs, the valley in which Philae sits having been eroded through the crater rim and indeed the shape of Philae's own little nook, suggests during Spring and Summer on 67P, this area is exposed to a high level of intense sunlight. The local area has been scoured and eroded, with very little signs of the surface dust layer so conspicuous in the Northern "hemiduck". To the left of this image the head lobe is less eroded, forming a promontory on the head, which may be due to the shadow cast by the body lobe during the Summer weeks.
Also very clear in this image is the layering of the comet's interior. It is unclear from this image whether they formed during the original accretion phase, are the result of resurfacing processes, or are the result of thermally induced phase changes in the sub-surface ice layers. Their varying thickness suggests to me they are the result of resurfacing events, most likely from some manifestation of Cryovolcanism.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
The Adventures of Philae
At last the area of Philae's final landing has started to become illuminated. This NAVCAM image taken on 9th of March is overexposed, but it shows clearly many of the surface features previously hidden by shadows.
Philae's alcove, Abydos, unfortunately still appears to be partially shaded in this shot, but as the Sun is quite quickly moving South now, it should not be too long before a lot more sunlight reaches Philae.
The large number of Southern facing overhangs, the valley in which Philae sits having been eroded through the crater rim and indeed the shape of Philae's own little nook, suggests during Spring and Summer on 67P, this area is exposed to a high level of intense sunlight. The local area has been scoured and eroded, with very little signs of the surface dust layer so conspicuous in the Northern "hemiduck". To the left of this image the head lobe is less eroded, forming a promontory on the head, which may be due to the shadow cast by the body lobe during the Summer weeks.
Also very clear in this image is the layering of the comet's interior. It is unclear from this image whether they formed during the original accretion phase, are the result of resurfacing processes, or are the result of thermally induced phase changes in the sub-surface ice layers. Their varying thickness suggests to me they are the result of resurfacing events, most likely from some manifestation of Cryovolcanism.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0