Mostly Mapping Map of the Day - December 2, 2014
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could have been just another unknown hunk of galactic stuff traveling through the enormity of space. According to Wikipedia it was discovered in 1969 by Klim Ivanovych Churyumov who identified it by working off of photographs taken by Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko, who was shooting for a different comet. Even so, were it not for the fact that the 2.5-mile diameter comet became the target for the European Space Agency Rosetta mission, it would still have remained in obscurity. The historic mission, launched in 2004 and making its rendezvous with the comment earlier this year, became the first to ever land a space probe on a comet, subsequently creating a fascinated global audience.
I ran into a blog post about how the comet is being compared to cities worldwide using digital wizardry. But even more interesting is this Esri CityEngine Web Scene authored by Zorko Sostaric of Eagle Technology in Auckland, New Zealand.
The Web Scene takes a few moments to load, but once it does it offers an intriguing interactive perspective of the comet above Auckland. You can also view the ArcGIS Online item details.