Rosetta Probe's final flyby of Earth

Here is an article from the Daily Mail which includes a picture taken by the Rosetta Probe as it made its final flyby of Earth:

This spectacular image of our home planet was captured by Europe's Rosetta probe as it made its third and final flyby of Earth.
The outline of Antarctica is visible under the clouds in the illuminated crescent. Pack ice in front of the coastline caused the very bright spots on the image.
The Earth image was taken by the-board camera OSIRIS yesterday, from a distance of 393,000miles.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f44ce2faf6cd.jpg[/atsimg]

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/fbbd56b83792.jpg[/atsimg]

www.dailymail.co.uk...

Here is a link to the official website:

www.esa.int...

This is North America at night (picture taken from ESA site):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/21ea3e6c0bda.png[/atsimg]


And here's an image of Earth taken by the Navigation Camera (picture also taken from ESA site):

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1a82cb75a948.jpg[/atsimg]


[edit on 13-11-2009 by berenike]

Absolutely gorgeous.

Too bad we don't know much about whats on that planet...

TY for posting, s/f.

Here is a link to the BBC - a video is included in their article:

news.bbc.co.uk...

And here is a picture taken from the BBC site:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/e36888812dab.jpg[/atsimg]

I've taken this quote from Wiki, but unfortunately I couldn't get the link to work. There's a lot of information there which is worth following up:

Rosetta is a European Space Agency-led robotic spacecraft mission launched in 2004, intended to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Rosetta consists of two main elements: the Rosetta space probe and the Philae lander. The spacecraft will also flyby and examine two asteroids on its way to the comet[1].
The probe is named after the Rosetta Stone, as it is hoped the mission will help unlock the secrets of how our solar system looked before planets formed. The lander is named after the Nile island Philae where an obelisk was found that helped decipher the Rosetta Stone.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by berenike]

reply to post by Mr Mask

There is little evidence to support the claims of intelligent life, though there are some primitive life forms.