Rosetta Mission

[6Foot2]

Link: Philae comet lander wakes up - BBC News

 

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth...

[witch]

Yay! Philae!!

 

 

[Garacesh]

Wakey wakey sleepyhead \o/

[localzuk]

Great news.

[6Foot2]

Wakey wakey sleepyhead \o/

 

[Garacesh]

Haha yeah I saw the tweet. Adorable

[6Foot2]

Haha yeah I saw the tweet. Adorable

 

Ah. I hadn't and thought that you might not have also.

 

[6Foot2]

http://www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-Philae-Lander-%E2%80%93-Chemistry-on-a-Comet.png

Link: Compound Interest - The Philae Lander - Chemistry on a Comet

[6Foot2]

[6Foot2]

Rosetta's shadow

 

http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2016/06/rosetta_s_shadow/16048903-1-eng-GB/Rosetta_s_shadow_node_full_image_2.gif

 

This sequence of 12 images taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 14 February 2015 capture the spacecraft's shadow against the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

 

The images were taken about six kilometres above the comet’s surface, and the image resolution is just 11 cm/pixel. The image frames are about 228 m across. Rosetta’s fuzzy shadow, measuring approximately 20 x 50 metres, is seen at the bottom of the images.

 

The 12 images are featured in today's data release, which includes over 3500 OSIRIS images taken in the period 20 December 2014 – 10 March 2015.

 

Link: Space in Images - 2016 - 06 - Rosetta's shadow

[6Foot2]

Link: Rosetta comet probe given termination date - BBC News

 

The Rosetta probe will be crash-landed on Comet 67P on Friday 30 September, the European Space Agency has confirmed.

 

The manoeuvre, which is expected to destroy the satellite, will bring to an end two years of investigations at the 4km-wide icy dirt-ball.

 

Flight controllers plan to have the cameras taking and relaying pictures during the final descent.

 

Sensors that "sniff" the chemical environment will also be switched on.

 

All other instruments will likely be off...

[6Foot2]

Link: Found: Philae lander finally spotted by Rosetta on comet 67P: New Scientist

 

 

...Finding Philae doesn’t just provide a sense of closure for those who thought it would be lost forever, as knowing the landing site will help mission scientists fully understand the data gathered by the probe.

 

“This wonderful news means that we now have the missing ‘ground-truth’ information needed to put Philae’s three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is,” said Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor.

 

Rosetta doesn’t have long to celebrate its success. On 30 September, the mission team will command the spacecraft to land on 67P’s surface – something it was never designed to do – providing us with a second chance to study a comet up close. Although Rosetta will end up in a slightly different part of the comet, in some sense the two spacecraft will finally be reunited.

[stevenlong1985]

First-Ever Discovery: Complex Organic Molecules Found on Rosetta's Comet

[Garacesh]

Well, today is the day. In about 10 minutes, Rosetta is kaput.

Rosetta probe set for comet collision - BBC News

[6Foot2]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/rosetta.png

 

Link: xkcd: Rosetta

 

Image text:

 

I WONDERED why he kept asking whether we thought the impact speed was too low.

[6Foot2]

Link: View Rosetta's comet

 

This interactive tool allows you to view Rosetta’s target comet (67P/C-G) from all angles.

 

You can zoom in and out, pan across, and rotate the comet to explore its surface as seen by Rosetta’s navigation camera, NAVCAM.