

False stars on March 28 Rosetta passed within 14 km of the comet’s surface during a flyby, but had unexpected technical problems.

Rosetta has an onboard star tracker that locks onto specific stars to maintain the spacecraft’s orientation and keep its antenna pointed toward Earth. During the flyby, the star tracker became confused by dust particles around the comet, which looked like stars.

This image of the comet’s belly and the Imhotep plain was taken from 19.9 km above the surface.