Study of the photometric properties of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the OSIRIS instrument of the Rosetta spacecraft

Abstract

The ROSETTA mission is the cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency devoted to the study of the minor bodies of the Solar System. Its primary objective is to perform an extensive study of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (hereafter 67P/CG). Launched on the 2nd of March 2004, the spacecraft overflew the asteroids 2837 Steins in 2008 and 21 Lutetia in 2010. Since its encounter with 67P/CG in July 2014, the spacecraft has been escorting the nucleus thus allowing to study it with cameras, spectrometers, dust analysers and radio science experiments. The spacecraft will continue its escort at least until December 2015. We present the results on the photometric properties of the nucleus derived from disk-averaged and disk-resolved images of the OSIRIS instrument acquired in 2014-2015 including the close fly-by data acquired on the 14th of February 2015.