Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2015

44 SMALL BODIES Rosetta's approach to 67P/Churyumov-Gera- simenko was instead totally different, as it provided for entry into orbit around the comet and the subsequent descent on its surface. Both the orbiter and the Philae lander had been equipped with magneto- meters capable of measuring weak magne- tic fields and their spatial and temporal variations. The sensitivity of the two instru- ments (called RPC-MAG and ROMAP) has, for example, allowed to record changes in the magnetic field around Rosetta pro- duced by the release of Philae (12 Novem- ber 2014), and after the lander’s repeated bounces on the comet’s surface, the data provided by its magnetometer (along with 6 7P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko photographed by Rosetta’s NavCam on 3 February 2015, from 28.7 km away. ESA/Ro- setta/ NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0]