Rosetta spacecraft enters comet's orbit (pictures)

As the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft arrived in the orbit of comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko earlier this week, its onboard OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this image from a distance of approximately 1000 km.

After a 10-year pursuit across the solar system, Rosetta entered thecomet's orbit on Wednesday, becoming the first space probe to achieve such afeat.

Read more: Rosetta spacecraft makes historic comet rendezvous
Close-up of first comet to give a ride around the sun

Chury, as the comet has been nicknamed, and Rosetta are currently around 405 million kilometers from Earth, said the ESA, just about half way between Jupiter and Mars.

Here we see Chury as imaged by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on August 3, from a distance of 285 km. The image resolution of this photo is about 5.3 metres/pixel.

Next up is the landing mission, scheduled to take place in November. Anexplosive harpoon will drop the Philae's lander on the comet's icy surface,where it will have to drill in up to 20cm. Not an easy task.

"As the latest images from OSIRIS make clear, choosing a landing sitefor Philae will not be easy," said the space agency.

Rosetta will then escort Philae and its new ride on its trip around the sununtil at least the end of 2015.

While focused on a smooth region on the "body" of comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured thisimage on August 6, the day it entered the comet's orbit. The image shows incredibledetail and a range of features, including boulders, craters, and steep cliffs.

In this close-up image of comet 67P taken on August 6, from a distance ofjust 120 km, you can see what the ESA calls the comet's "head" at theleft, casting shadows onto the "neck" and "body" to the right.

This full-frame NAVCAM image was taken on August 4, at about 234 km fromcomet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The comet is not centered in the image as a result of a rendezvous burnconducted the previous day, said the ESA, which adjusted Rosetta's trajectorytowards the comet.

Next, the ESA's landing site selection group will meet for their first fullmeeting in late August. They will select a maximum of 5 candidate sites for thescheduled November landing on the comet's surface.