A few weeks ago I posted about how the European Space Agency’s “Rosetta” aircraft has intercepted Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko after chasing it for ten years through the planets.
The latest news, for all you space geeks, is that the touchdown site on the comet has been identified, and on November 11 a probe will leave Rosetta and land on the comet.
X marks the spot:
The big news in space today is that the European Space Agency’s “Rosetta” spacecraft has, after a ten-year journey, finally rendezvoused with its target, Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenk.
Here’s a picture of Comet C-G up close:
I mentioned the comet chaser in a post back in January. The New York Times has a front-page article about the Rosetta mission in the paper today.
The Times writes:
“From a distance, the blurry blob initially looked somewhat like a rubber duck. As the details came into focus, it began to bear a closer resemblance to a knob of ginger flying through space.”
The comet’s far enough from the sun (330 million miles) that it’s still just a hunk of ice and rock. As it gets closer, the sun will heat the comet and it will begin to acquire the familiar coma and tail of a comet.
The Rosetta spacecraft will accompany Comet C-G for a year, flying right alongside it as it circles the sun.
You may have seen this in the news. The European Space Agency’s “Rosetta” spacecraft was launched ten years ago with the plan for it to intercept Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and drop a probe onto its surface this year.
Rosetta has been in hibernation for 2 1/2 years and was just stirred back to life yesterday by the ESA center in Germany.
The comet interception is set to happen this fall. There have been other spacecraft-to-comet missions before, but this will be the first time that a craft goes into orbit around a comet and anchors a probe to its surface. Here’s what it’s supposed to look like:
A little impressive, no?