February 23, 2004. Copyright 2004. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Caption to photograph GN16203. Rosetta was originally intended to rendezvous with the periodic comet 46P/Wirtanen, but after the launch was delayed the target was changed to another regular visitor to the inner Solar System, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. 67P/C-G was discovered in 1969 by astronomer Klim Churyumov while examining photographs taken by colleague Svetlana Gerasimenko.

Sixty-one images of comet 67P/C-G were taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope between March 11Š12, 2003. The HSTÕs sharp vision enabled astronomers to isolate the cometÕs nucleus from the coma. The images showed that the nucleus measures five by three kilometres, has a rugby ball shape, and rotates once in approximately 12 hours. Picture shows 3-D models of nucleus of comet 67P/C-G based on these images: pole (top), side (bottom left), and end view (bottom right). MUST CREDIT NASA, ESA, Philippe Lamy (Laboratoire d'Astronomie Spatiale, France)
/ENDS