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Incredible New Gif Shows Cosmic 'Snow' On the Surface of a Comet (gizmodo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the winter-wonderland dept.

Press2ToContinue shares a report from Gizmodo: What you're looking at is the surface of the comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is orbited by the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe. The photo comes from Rosetta's OSIRIS, or Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System. The raw data was collected on June 1, 2016, and posted publicly on March 22 of this year. Twitter user landru79 processed the gif from this data release and shared it yesterday. In the foreground is the comet's surface (still several kilometers away from the probe), and three kinds of specks. The stars in the background belong to the constellation Canis Major, according to ESA senior advisor Mark McCaughrean. Some of the foreground stuff could be streaks from high-energy particles striking the cameraâ"it's a charge-coupled device (CCD), so even invisible particles can leave streaks in the results. And some could be dust from the comet itself.

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. New Gif? by ls671 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    New Gif?

    Who cares about the image format in such a context?

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    Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
    1. Re:New Gif? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      New Gif?

      Who cares about the image format in such a context?

      The only thing GIF is used for these days is animations on the web, so... yes it's useful information.

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      No sig today...
    2. Re:New Gif? by caparra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Nowadays gif means 'short animation', much more than a particular format. Slashdot seems to be full of cranky Statlers and Waldorfs this days.

    3. Re:New Gif? by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Slashdot IS an asshole environment.

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  2. This is why I can hardly be bothered with slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Well, not the only reason, but one of the main reasons. I used to care enough to actually log in and take part in the debates, showing my face, because at one time Slashdot was about news that were often overlooked elsewhere - technology, science and even politics with a bit of depth. Now it is no more than run-of-the-mill non-stories like this: pretty pictures (or 'awesome', God help us). You know, science news is so much more than "Wow, look at this!!!", tech news is much deeper than "Wow, company X just brought this Fab New Gadget For Idiots to market!!!", politics ought to be more than bickering stupidly with semi-literate fascists. And so on.

    Yeah, maybe it all boils down to what the marketing executives think will attract the nano-second attention span of those stupid enough to actually look at adverts online; being marketing suits, they don't really understand or care, but they do like a glossy picture. To hell with it; maybe I should just stop being sentimental. And maybe all of us who can't be bothered with slashdot any more, should demand that they do what they are legally required to do in most countries: delete our data when we demand they do so (which they boldly state that they refuse to do, last I checked).