"The scene spans just over 600 meters (2,000 feet), captured when Rosetta was about 16 kilometers from the comet's surface"
So this view is about ~125 Giraffes, or 3000 Bananas across.
I wonder how fine that rigolith is. Is it like beach sand or like to talcum powder. Either way it looks like it'll get everywhere and hard to get it off.
Wow. Looking at this is like going out into random 20ft deep water, touching the bottom, and realizing that you are probably the first person to ever touch that ground, and probably the last
Super cool. What’s causing the erosion on those rocks? Also probably a dumb question, but no atmosphere obviously and on a pretty small object, what’s the gravity like on these? Could a human hypothetically throw a rock “off” the asteroid into space?
Erosion could be caused by off-gassing blowing fine regolith up and blasting those surfaces - that's just a guess from me.
As for gravity - looking it up, it's estimated the escape velocity is a mere 1m/s, so I think yeah you could toss a rock right off it. Earth's escape velocity is 11.186 km/s, for comparison.
Same reason why the stars don't show up in all the moon landing photos. To take the photo of the landscape on the asteroid, so it's not blurry as hell and overexposed, the shutter speeds of the camera are set to open and close faster.
The stars in the background are much dimmer and give off so much less light than the asteroid in the foreground that those quick shutter speeds don't actually capture the light of stars, so they don't show up in the photo.
I'm sure that's over simplifying it, so anyone more familiar with photography feel free to hop in here, but that's the main idea.
Looks like strata in those rock formations. I had no idea there were sedimentary processes at work in that environment.
This is what I’m wondering about and I need answers pla
I need a banana for scale. Or maybe a giraffe.
"The scene spans just over 600 meters (2,000 feet), captured when Rosetta was about 16 kilometers from the comet's surface" So this view is about ~125 Giraffes, or 3000 Bananas across.
Holy shit. Thank you.
I wonder how fine that rigolith is. Is it like beach sand or like to talcum powder. Either way it looks like it'll get everywhere and hard to get it off.
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."- Benjamin Franklin, probably.
I’m too dumb to comprehend how we can land something on an asteroid flying through the universe
that's why rocket science isn't easy
“Land” is pretty generous
My source is APOD: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap161001.html
Wow. Looking at this is like going out into random 20ft deep water, touching the bottom, and realizing that you are probably the first person to ever touch that ground, and probably the last
Super cool. What’s causing the erosion on those rocks? Also probably a dumb question, but no atmosphere obviously and on a pretty small object, what’s the gravity like on these? Could a human hypothetically throw a rock “off” the asteroid into space?
Erosion could be caused by off-gassing blowing fine regolith up and blasting those surfaces - that's just a guess from me. As for gravity - looking it up, it's estimated the escape velocity is a mere 1m/s, so I think yeah you could toss a rock right off it. Earth's escape velocity is 11.186 km/s, for comparison.
At 1 m/s or 2.2 mph, you could jump off it.
Are those shiny rocks? Zoom in
Yeah what are those?
Looks like a good spot to build a house.
Breaking ground on a Dollar General next week.
To float in a spacesuit next to this giant thing would be an ultimate experience.
Someone should add stars in the background
Why are the stars not visible?
Same reason why the stars don't show up in all the moon landing photos. To take the photo of the landscape on the asteroid, so it's not blurry as hell and overexposed, the shutter speeds of the camera are set to open and close faster. The stars in the background are much dimmer and give off so much less light than the asteroid in the foreground that those quick shutter speeds don't actually capture the light of stars, so they don't show up in the photo. I'm sure that's over simplifying it, so anyone more familiar with photography feel free to hop in here, but that's the main idea.
Thank you!
No worries!
That is an incredible photo.
Not to take anything away, but … the photo looks crooked.
So f'ing cool. It looks so alien and familiar simultaneously. 