back to article SPACE the FINAL FRONTIER: These are the images of COMET PROBE ROSETTA

The European Space Agency (ESA) has released details of the first bushel of studies derived from the Rosetta spacecraft's visit to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The journal Science has devoted a special issue to seven studies of the comet, but let's do a summary here. For starters, boffins have decided that 67P is fluffy, …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Holes

    Look like there are some holes one of those Millennium Falcon eating worms could live in.

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Anuket having a deep crack

    Someone has been overdoing the Egyptian mythology or Stargate SG1. Probably the latter.

    1. Chris Griffin

      @Frank Bough

      Strange, no Isis? I thought she was a pretty big deal...

      1. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

        Re: "Strange, no Isis?"

        probably didn't want to give any unintended additional exposure to the extremists whose acronym is sometimes similar...

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

      Imhotep!

      Imhotep!

      Imhotep!

      etc. ad inifnitum

  3. Mark 85

    What of poor Philae?

    Maybe it didn't bounce around but one of the worms batted it away from it's door.. err.. hole.

  4. et tu, brute?
    Thumb Up

    Pretty amazing pictures!

    Still awed by what our scientists can achieve when they put their minds to it!

    Now could all scientists in the defence industry please start working on projects like this, instead of wasting their brainpower on ways to destruct other humans? Imagine what we can achieve then!

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Pretty amazing pictures!

      To be fair, this thing called the Internet came out of defense research funding...

      1. frank ly

        Re: Pretty amazing pictures!

        To be fair; as did the rockets, propulsion and guidance systems, etc.

        1. wikkity

          Re: Pretty amazing pictures!

          War and medicine have always been major drivers in technological development. Of course, nowadays you can add porn to that list.

          1. et tu, brute?

            Re: Pretty amazing pictures!

            Yeah, I realise that we got lots of benefits from the "war effort"...

            My point is, if all those clever chaps who are inventing stuff for the war machine could apply their minds full time to ideas that are not primarily designed to kill/destroy others, we would be much further in the world!

            How big a percentage of the stuff invented for the military has benefited humankind in general? I reckon maybe, if we're lucky, a 2 digit percentage figure... so there's still lots of brain power wasted on war and destruction!

            And let the down votes roll on... I'm not here to score brownie points, but simply want to comment on what I see in this world!

            1. mhenriday
              Pint

              Re: Pretty amazing pictures!

              Indeed - the indisputable fact that many technical advances have taken place under or in preparation for military conflicts hardly means that investment in so-called «military research» is required to produce such advantages ; the implication doesn't hold. We waste untold resources on research to find ever new, ever more effective ways of murdering our fellows, while, if possible, holding down casualties on our side. There is no evidence to support the rather odd notion that technical advances can't be produced by direct investment in projects that do not have as their main objective better methods for killing the designated «enemy»....

              Henri

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Always the same

    You get to a holiday destination, the hotel isn't finished, there are cracks in the floors, dust everywhere, there isn't as much sunshine as you expected and there's some German tourist with an enormous camera taking pictures of everything.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Always the same

      No water in the pool, and (of course) no atmosphere.

      On the plus side, the beaches are amazing.

    2. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Always the same

      There's also a funny smell about the place.

      The plane lands miles from where you expected it to. And despite expecting hot weather, you find that it's just getting sunnier and sunnier all the time, until you feel like you're going to melt.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Always the same

        The plane lands miles from where you expected it to

        That's unfair, the ESA is far, far better than Ryanair.

        1. Gotno iShit Wantno iShit

          Re: Always the same

          So is herpes.

  6. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    It's with my other camera

    The remaining regions haven't been light enough to snap since Rosetta arrived last year.

    Perhaps they should have paid extra for the camera with the built-in flash. Yes, I know, weight constraints and all that, but everyone knows from Hollywood that pretty pictures trump real science and engineering every day.

    1. frank ly

      Re: It's with my other camera

      I wonder how big the comet is and how far away Rosetta is? Maybe they could ask it to keep still for some long exposure pictures?

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        Re: It's with my other camera

        Yeah, one of those camera flashes that will illuminate a scene from several hundred metres away. One of those ones that takes 400,000 AA sized-batteries.

      2. cray74

        Re: It's with my other camera

        Then are flashes meant for aerial night time recon flights. They've been superseded by night vision systems, radar, and whatnot, but if you want to snap some pics of a comet from kilometers away, this might actually fit on a space probe. The reflector and flash are, I think, a manageable mass, while the capacitor banks could stand a diet plan from modern electrical engineers.

        http://blog.invention.smithsonian.org/2013/11/04/seeing-in-the-dark-aerial-recon-in-wwii/

  7. VinceH

    "A last look at 67P. Awesome, isn't it?"

    Yes, yes it is.

  8. Kaltern

    The image of the comet locations - they're obviously a dog, a tortoise, and an old man about to take a dump.

    Space, huh.

  9. 27escape
    Angel

    Wind trails?

    Or rocks rolling downhill trails?

  10. Billa Bong

    Ok, so I'm sold on location

    That's my kind of terrain. But where are the nearest schools? Will is snow in winter so I can build a snow man?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ok, so I'm sold on location

      Yes, but it won't melt for 80,000 years.

    2. Trainee grumpy old ****
      Mushroom

      Re: Ok, so I'm sold on location

      You can build a snowman but, seeing as everything is "Egyptian", don't be too surprised if some killjoy issues a fatwa against it.

  11. DNTP

    I'm saving the organic chemistry paper (Capaccioni et al) for last since its closest to my speciality.

    BTW I highly endorse listening to Ziggy Stardust while reading these.

  12. Bob Merkin
    Thumb Up

    ERMAHGERD

    GERSBERMS

  13. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    That last image...

    ...for some reason it reminds me of an old Dr Who set - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00v1qqv

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like