           APOD: 2018 April 26 - The Snows of Churyumov Gerasimenko

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 April 26
                                      [2]
                      The Snows of Churyumov-Gerasimenko
            Image Credit: ESA [3] , Rosetta [4] , MPS [5] , OSIRIS;
                      UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA -
                    GIF Animation: Jacint Roger Perez [6]

Explanation: You couldn't really be caught [7]  in this blizzard while
standing by a cliff on Churyumov-Gerasimenko [8] , also known as comet 67P.
Orbiting the comet in June of 2016 the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle
camera did record streaks of dust and ice particles though, as they drifted
across the field of view near the camera and above [9]  the comet's surface.
Still, some of the bright specks [10]  in the scene are likely due to a rain
of energetic charged particles or cosmic rays [11]  hitting the camera, and
the dense background of stars in the direction of [12]  the constellation
Canis Major. Click on this single frame to play and the background stars are
easy to spot as they trail from top to bottom in an animated gif (7.7MB) [13]
. The 33 frames of the time compressed animation span about 25 minutes of real
time. The stunning gif was constructed from consecutive images [14]  taken
while Rosetta cruised some 13 kilometers from the comet's nucleus.

                   Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space [15]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [27] (MTU [28] ) & Jerry Bonnell [29]
                                  (UMCP [30] )
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1804/RosettaOsirisC67P_JacintRoger.gif
  [3] http://www.esa.int/
  [4] http://rosetta.esa.int/
  [5] http://www.mps.mpg.de/en
  [6] https://twitter.com/landru79
  [7] https://www.sondasespaciales.com/portada/2018/04/
nuevas-imagenes-de-rosetta-el-cometa-67-p-como-nunca-lo-habias-visto/
  [8] https://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/news/
final-descent-images-rosetta-spacecraft
  [9] ap170331.html
  [10] https://www.newscientist.com/article/
2167224-amazing-gif-shows-dust-and-cosmic-rays-raining-down-on-comet-67p/
  [11] https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/goddard/2016/ ace-cosmic-ray
  [12] https://twitter.com/markmccaughrean/status/988729672870612992
  [13] image/1804/RosettaOsirisC67P_JacintRoger.gif
  [14] https://imagearchives.esac.esa.int/index.php?/category/ 410/start-72#top
  [15] ap180427.html
  [16] ap180425.html
  [17] archivepix.html
  [18] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [19] lib/aptree.html
  [20] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [21] calendar/allyears.html
  [22] /apod.rss
  [23] lib/edlinks.html
  [24] lib/about_apod.html
  [25] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180426
  [26] ap180427.html
  [27] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [28] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [29] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [30] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [31] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [33] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [34] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [35] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [36] http://www.mtu.edu/
