Rosetta orbiter science

It is almost a year since the Rosetta spacecraft began orbiting comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014. The orbiter’s eleven instruments are studying the comet at different wavelengths - infrared, ultraviolet, microwave and radio – as well as gathering high-resolution images and information about its shape, density, temperature and chemical composition.

This video outlines the mission’s scientific highlights so far – “a geologist’s playground” - and some of the latest science from three of the orbiter’s instruments: the Osiris camera, the microwave MIRO instrument and VIRTIS (visible and infrared thermal imaging spectrometer), which is studying the comet’s nucleus.

It contains footage from the first Rosetta science workshop, which was recently held in Rome, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany – where a copy of Osiris is maintained in a vacuum chamber to test commands.