A European
probe hunting down a distant comet has beamed back the first images of its
Tuesday swing by the planet Earth.
The
European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft flew past Earth for the second
time at about 3:57 p.m. EST (2057 GMT) to nab a
speed boost for the 4.4 billion-mile (7.1 billion-kilometer) trek to the
comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
"The spacecraft will now be catapulted towards the outer solar
system with its newly-gained energy before coming back to Earth for another
boost," ESA officials said in a post-flyby announcement.
Rosetta's
first images of its second Earth flyby were recorded by the probe's navigation
camera and other instruments to reveal its home
planet in color and a crescent moon in stark
black and white. Views of Graham
Land, Antarctica and a monochrome look at the limb
of the Earth were among pictures released today.
According
to its flight plan, Rosetta will turn its camera eye on the moon as it departs
Earth today. As the probe flies further out, it will look back at the Earth-moon
system, mission managers said.
Tuesday's
Earth flyby brought Rosetta within 3,290 miles (5,295 kilometers)
of the planet's surface and marked Rosetta's third planetary pass to gain a
gravity assist for its planned 2014 comet rendezvous. The probe carries a small
lander, dubbed Philae, designed to touch down on 67/P
Churyumov-Gerasimenko to take a closer look at the icy wanderer.
The probe
launched in March 2004 and first
flew by Earth one year later before swinging past Mars on Feb. 27 this year.
The flybys allow Rosetta to steal a bit of speed from the orbital momentum of
each planet as it uses gravity to slingshot across the solar system. It was
flying at about 27,961 mph (45,000 kph) as it left the Earth late Tuesday, officials
said.
Rosetta
will return for yet another Earth boost Nov. 13, 2009, after visiting an
asteroid called Steins in September 2008.
Rosetta
researchers, meanwhile, are looking forward to sifting through the data
collected by the comet probe's instruments during the Earth flyby, the ESA
said.
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