Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft

Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA's interplanetary Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth
on its way back across the Solar System. Pictured above, Earth showed a bright crescent phase
featuring the South Pole to the passing rocket ship. Launched from Earth in 2004, Rosetta used
the gravity of the Earth to help propel it out past Mars and toward a 2014 rendezvous with Comet
Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Last year, the robot spacecraft passed asteroid 2867 Steins, and next year
it is scheduled to pass enigmatic asteroid 21 Lutetia. If all goes well, Rosetta will release a probe that
will land on the 15-km diameter comet in 2014.