The True Value of A Stellar Selfie—Rosetta Spacecraft Snaps A Selfie with Comet 67P

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Earlier this summer the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission marked its first success in arriving to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And with the whole world watching via their consistently updated #CometWatch newsfeed, it begged the question, once in its orbit what would be the Rosetta's first mission objective. Well thanks to the magic of interstellar twitter feeds, which can apparently even be updated in space, we learned that the Rosetta's first landmark moment was a once-in-a-lifetime selfie.

Using the CIVA imaging system on-board the Rosetta's passenger lander Philae, which will be deployed onto the surface of the comet early this November, the spacecraft was able to snap a selfie of itself and the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko without as much of a problem as a low-light flash. Travelling at an orbit of 50 kilometers (31 miles) away from the comet, the spacecraft was able to capture the image with its robotic eye this past Sunday (Sept. 7), and has since then created a twitter uproar at the stunning stellar selfie.

Officially tweeted on the Rosetta mission's Twitter account this afternoon (Sept. 10), the selfie came accompanied by the caption "#Selfie at #67P - @philae2014's CIVA camera snapped my solar array in front of the comet :-)".

Once the selfie was snapped and uploaded, the mission continued for the Rosetta spacecraft, as the Comet Infrared and Visible Analyser (CIVA) instrument began imaging and analyzing the surface of the comet, seeking out the perfect landing spot for the Philae lander, that is planned to make contact with the comet early this November.

Though the hurling comet was thought to originally be composed of predominantly ice, as many comets are, the selfie revealed that the dark imaging of the comet may reveal that much of the comet is in fact made of materials much closer to charcoal.

Principal investigator Alan Stern from the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado says that "we're a bit surprised at just how unreflective the comet's surface is and how little evidence of exposed water-ice it shows." And just like that, a 21^st century space phenomenon showed the true value of a stellar selfie!