NASA's Rosetta 'Alice' spectrometer shows Earth's ultraviolet fingerprint

Washington, Jan 15 (ANI): NASA's Alice spectrometer on board the European Space Agency's comet orbiter spacecraft, Rosetta, has successfully revealed the Earth's ultraviolet fingerprint.

Instrument Principal Investigator Dr. Alan Stern, associate vice president of the Space Science and Engineering Division at Southwest Research Institute, said: "It's been over five years since Rosetta was launched on its 10-year journey to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and Alice is working well.

"As one can see from the spectra we obtained during this flyby of the Earth, the instrument is in focus and shows the main ultraviolet spectral emission of our home planet. These data give a nice indication of the scientifically rich value of ultraviolet spectroscopy for studying the atmospheres of objects in space, and we're looking forward to reaching the comet and exploring its mysteries."

Dr. Paul Feldman, professor of Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University, and an Alice co-investigator, added: "Although the Earth's ultraviolet emission spectrum was one of the first discoveries of the space age and has been studied by many orbiting spacecraft, the Rosetta flyby provides a unique view from which to test current models of the Sun's interaction with our atmosphere." (ANI)