ASTRONOMY
Surveying the sky
Tom Eddershaw on the imaging equipment observing our skies, both from Earth and space, including the imagers onboard the Rosetta Philae lander
T
he Rosetta Philae lander successfully touched down on the comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November
2014 in the climax of a 10-year journey. Even on its descent the Rosetta mission had begun sending back iconic images of the comet, the probe, and the orbiter from which it was released. Ambitious space projects are now a possibility
and they are becoming more common. In June 2010, the asteroid explorer Hayabusa completed its seven-year, 200 million-kilometre journey to the asteroid Itokawa, and returned to Earth.
24 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • December 2014/January 2015
Te Hayabusa was fitted with an optical sensor designed and manufactured by Hamamatsu Photonics, which was used to observe the surface condition of the asteroid. Space exploration is delving deeper into
the void, but back home on Earth amateur astronomers are providing mass coverage of our skies and oſten spotting astronomical events that would otherwise be missed by more dedicated professional observatories. Te imaging systems used for ambitious projects such as the Rosetta mission must be able to cope with the extreme conditions found in space, while cameras for mass survey systems on the other hand must provide high enough resolution while staying affordable. E2v manufactured five sensors for the Rosetta
mission, out of roughly 20 instruments in total. Paul Jerram, head of engineering sensors at e2v,
@imveurope
www.imveurope.com
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