Rosetta is the name of a European probe that, in the year 2014, will approach a comet and put a lander down on its surface. As if that's not cool enough! But other things are afoot. Getting to a comet isn't easy, and Rosetta is taking a tortured path through the solar system, passing by Mars once and Earth three times! The Mars swingby occurred Saturday, and was picture perfect. And I mean that literally. When it passed the Red Planet it took some amazing shots:
This was taken before the slingshot maneuver, and it was taken by the navigation camera-- it's not even a science camera! When Rosetta gets close to the comet which goes by the tongue-twisting name of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the images it returns will be killer. But Mars provides a pretty stunning backdrop too. You can find a color shot of the whole planet here, which ...
