Rosetta flew by the comet several times, but only the images taken during its closest flybys were useful for creating 3D images.
Astronomers first noticed caves on a comet. They were discovered in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. There must be ice inside, which explains the mysterious jet coming from the comet. New Scientist writes about it.
The discovery was made by Philippe Lamy from the French National Center for Scientific Research and his colleagues. As part of the study, a 3D reconstruction of the comet’s surface was made, based on data from the Rosetta spacecraft.
“It makes perfect sense that objects like asteroids would have caves, but we hadn’t detected them before,” Lamy said.
He and his team created 3D images, also known as anaglyphs, to identify the caves they found. They found that the caves reached a depth of 20 to 47 meters.
“If it is water ice from inside the comet, it will provide an excellent opportunity to explore and possibly sample an area of the comet that has remained untouched for millions of years,” the scientists added.
We remind you that early astrophotographers photographed a rare green comet.
Source: korrespondent
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