The Rosetta spacecraft took the first image of its target – comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The images were taken on 20 and 21 March at the OSIRIS remote control.
The two images were taken at a distance of about three million miles (five million kilometers), which required a series of shots with exposures ranging from 60 to 300 seconds, taken with wide-angle and narrow-angle cameras. The visualization of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko is part of a six-week event to prepare the spacecraft's scientific instruments for close-up imaging and study of the comet. Rosetta has traveled through the solar system for 10 years, and will arrive at comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko this August.
The Rosetta spacecraft was reactivated on January 20 after a record 957 days spent in hibernation.
