Rosetta approaches the comet Churyumov Gerasimenko at a distance of 10 kilometers

An interesting news was published in the Rosetta blog today: in just a few days, the interplanetary station will switch from a 20-kilometer orbit to a 10-kilometer orbit. Rather, at first, the orbit from the circular (18.6 km) will be changed to elliptical (18.6 * 9.8 km) by October 10. After that, the device will go into a circular 10-km orbit with an orbital period of 66 hours, by October 15.

After the transition to this low orbit, a new phase of the project, called the “Close Observation Phase” (COP), will begin. At this stage, high-resolution images of the comet's surface will be taken, which will be used for the final preparation of the landing of the comet.
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The new orbit will enable the use of scientific tools Rosetta. In particular, dust samples will be collected and an analysis of the gas composition next to the cometary nucleus will be carried out.

The interplanetary station will remain in low orbit until October 28, after which the preplant stage will begin. The station's orbit will change, becoming elliptical, with an average radius of 30 km. After the next change of the orbit, the station will release the Philae landing probe, at a distance of 22.5 km from the core surface.

The landing of the probe on the surface of the comet is scheduled for November 12th. It is written about the work Philae will do here . Site J was selected as the main landing point:





The landing will most likely look like this:



Via esa