What a comet looks like from space. Modern comet research - Comets: a general description
Aristotle once explained the appearance of comets by the breathing of the Earth. According to him, earthly gases - “dry chaff” - rise to the upper layers of the atmosphere, where they ignite from “heavenly fire.” After which they fly across the sky, shining with a flaming tail. This idea of these celestial bodies lasted until the middle of the last millennium. Only in the 18th century, the English astronomer Edmond Halley noticed that in 1531, 1607 and 1682 comets flew along almost the same route. Then he suggested that it was not some kind of gas, but a celestial body flying in its orbit, and it should fly past the Earth again in 1758. The comet was just a little late and was spotted in 1759.
English astronomer Edmund Halley was a good friend of Isaac Newton. He discovered that bright comets and have almost identical orbits, and when he took into account the gravitational disturbances created by Jupiter and Saturn on comets, he concluded that they were different aspects of the same comet.
Comets are celestial objects that have given rise to fears and superstitions in the past and today arouse great curiosity. They can be periodic, such as Halley's Comet and others that govern a regular orbit around the Sun. And non-periodic ones, which enter the Solar System and return to interstellar space. The nucleus, when approaching the sun, causes hair and a tail to appear. Because they are small bodies and move very quickly in the vicinity of the Sun, in each passage there is a very large increase in the tail, which implies a loss of matter.
Now it is customary to divide comets into two groups - short-period, with a period of revolution around the Sun of less than 200 years, and long-period. And if we can still say something definite about the first, then the second is a dark matter. It is believed that their place of “residence” is the Oort cloud, located at the very border of the Solar system. The distance from the Sun to its border can be 100 thousand times greater than the distance from the Sun to the Earth.
The material that forms the nucleation corresponds to a kind of dirty gel with a mass ranging from 1.0 kg to several tens of tons. Like a kind of atmosphere, which can have a volume much larger than the Earth. It is brighter than the tail of the beginning. It is believed that each time it passes through the Sun, the diameter of the comet's nucleus decreases by several meters. Comets have two types of tails: one consisting of neutral dust, and the other of plasma, i.e. electrons and ionized gases. The tail is formed by electromagnetic pressure and solar wind.
This is the opposite of gravitational attraction, meaning it always points in a radial direction opposite the Sun. Galley Hale-Bop Hiakutake West Biela Kohutek. The hair and tail have an average of ten thousand to one hundred million times the diameter of the core, but with a very low density and therefore we can observe them from Earth.
Astronomer Edmond Halley.
Drawing illustrating the proposed appearance of the Oort cloud.
Seeder of the intelligent
It is these comets that come to us from the depths of deep space that from time to time “pamper” astronomers with strange and inexplicable antics. So, not all of them strictly follow the calculated trajectory. In 1926, astronomers observed a comet that randomly deviated from the path prescribed by gravity by as much as 24 degrees, which from the point of view of celestial mechanics is simply unthinkable. Many comets have orbits that seem to be specifically designed to fly around terrestrial planets. This was, for example, Comet Bennett, discovered in 1969. Passing very close to the Earth, it then visited Mars, after which it flew towards Venus and finally flew towards Jupiter.
Life and origin of comets The average lifespan of comets does not exceed 10 million years. It is believed that comet nuclei are wandering through space outside the solar system. Due to the movement of the Sun around the galactic core, these objects are captured by the Sun's gravitational field and become comets. This cloud is distributed spherically around the Sun. Its origin may be the very remnants of the solar system that solidified in this area. Some gravitational anomalies caused by nearby stars can dislodge some bodies from their positions, and they are attracted to the Sun.
Photo of Comet Bennett. 1969
Comet Lee, discovered at the very end of the last millennium and nicknamed Comet Nostradamus, had an unpredictable trajectory and an anomalous tail, directed, contrary to the laws of physics, not from the Sun, but towards it. According to all canons, it is believed that the tail of a comet is ionized gas “blown away” from it by the solar wind, and how it can not be directed towards the Sun is not entirely clear. The same anomalous tail has been observed in some other comets.
When they enter the solar system, these bodies can acquire three types of orbit. Parabolic and hyperbolic, which approach only the Sun and return to interstellar space. These are non-periodic comets. Elliptical. They are periodic comets.
This type of orbit is usually caused by the gravitational influence of planets, primarily Jupiter and Saturn, which tend to trap comets in solar system. What are comets? Essentially, comets are “dirty ice rocks.” The ice on these rocks is made up mostly of volatile material, and the “mud” is made up mostly of dust and rocks.
And ordinary comets also sometimes bring surprises. It happens that their brightness, for unknown reasons, increases overnight by tens of thousands of times, as happened in 1977 with the comet Tuttle-Giacobini-Cressack. Or the comet begins to blink unexpectedly (Comet Donati, blinking period - 4.6 hours). All these unresolved mysteries have led some astronomers to seriously declare that comets could well have been created artificially. As devices for seeding alien planets with life and for their periodic inspection. Considering that recent research has discovered very complex organic molecules and compounds in the cometary substance, reminiscent of the amino acids that make up our proteins, this assumption is not so fantastic.
Comets are objects of the solar system. Unlike planets, whose orbits are nearly circular, comets have highly elliptical orbits, which increases their approaching distance from the Sun. The further away from the comet's aphelion it takes longer for the comet to completely turn the sun.
What is hair and tail? As this “dirty rock of ice” gets closer to the sun, the temperature on its surface increases. Usually comets spend most their “lives” at such great distances from the Sun that their temperature is much lower. When sufficiently close to the Sun, the process of volatization of part of the constituent comets begins. The gases and grains released from the core form a cloud around them through this process. We call this cloud of hair comets. Some of the material in this cloud will be "blown" by the "solar wind" in the opposite direction of the Sun, forming the comet's tail.
Mission "VEGA"
Until the end of the last century, scientists were not able to see what the comet's nucleus looks like. The ionized coma, a kind of brightly glowing “atmosphere,” prevented him from seeing him. Only 32 years ago, the Soviet spacecraft Vega-1 and Vega-2 managed to approach the nucleus of Comet Halley and film it from a distance of less than 9,000 km. The Vega mission consisted of two parts, as indicated by its name (VEGA - Halley's Venus). First, the twin spacecraft entered Venus orbit and landed the descent modules. After which they headed for a rendezvous with the comet. The dates took place on March 6 and 9, 1986. The devices took about 1,500 photographs of the comet and transmitted its main parameters to Earth. Halley turned out to be not a ball, but rather a “cosmic shoe” 14 km long, 7.5 km wide, weighing 600 billion tons. It turned out that the “shoe” rotates around its “heel” and makes a full revolution in 54 hours. The temperature on the surface of the comet's nucleus reached 87°C. Every second it ejected 45 tons of gas and up to 8 tons of dust into space.
From the point of view of the solar system, the Earth is close to the Sun. When a comet approaches our planet, because it has also approached the Sun, it approaches the hair and tail. What we see of a comet in the inner solar system is its hair and tail.
Origin of comets Short-period comets have orbits in planes close to the plane of planetary orbits; Long-lived comets have orbits in planes with a wide variety of orientations. They would be more than a trillion objects, of all different sizes.
When these objects are disrupted, they will begin to "fall" into the inner regions of the Solar System, thus becoming long-period comets. This is the currently accepted model for the emergence of short-period comets. This “puck” of cometary nuclei is now called the “Kuiper Belt.”
What is a comet made of?
Just as no two planets are alike, no two comets are alike. Even the same comet, once again flying past us, is very different from the celestial traveler it was on the previous orbit.
It is estimated that the Kuiper belt consists of about 000 objects with a diameter of more than 300 km; 000 with more than 100 km; 000 from more than 30 km; etc. There is a comet in the heavens! Two comets "cross" the inner regions of the Solar System, in excellent conditions for observation from the latitude of Minas Gerais. They can be seen even with the naked eye, provided there is a suitable location, such as pollution typical for major cities. From a city like Belo Horizonte, you can get a great view of these comets with a small telescope or even binoculars.
All the time you've been studying for a competition, reading advice from gurus and experts, comparing yourself to other candidates, you've probably been teaching something very wrong. Something that makes your preparation more tedious and unproductive.
Coma
The comet's peculiar atmosphere is a mixture of carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia and methane. About a million kilometers long.
Rays
Occurs in “prowling comets”. Presumably they influence the flight trajectory, correcting it quite significantly. They are formed exclusively in the tail area.
Comet nucleus
About 99% of participants use this incorrect pattern and guess what their score is on the tests they take? Competitors follow this model simply because they do not observe the world around them. And also because they don't understand how your brain works.
What is correct is that you move from a system of “hours worked” to a system of “goals achieved.” Pay attention to how companies currently operate. It doesn't matter to them whether their employees spend 40 hours a week in the office. The question they ask is: How many products have you sold? How many clients have you received? How many materials did you produce? Most use at least a mixed system where the employee has a schedule but is rewarded for performance.
It consists of a mixture of stones, dust and various types of ice - water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia.
Galos
An expanding shell of light. Appears quite rarely, presumably as a result of the explosion and release of the outer shell of the comet's nucleus.
Abnormal tail
Few comets have it. Directed strictly towards the Sun. The origin is unclear.
Comet orbit.
Most bidders are still working on the traditional system of “training hours” per day. To avoid this big mistake, we will cover the following topics in this article. Why studying time is a trap. The big benefits of performance learning.
How to create a mixed system that respects your time. Ordinary people just think about how to pass time. A smart man tries to use time - Arthur Schopenhauer. In time we will be free of this weight. Without conditioning your brain to what you need to do effectively - study! - the tendency is that you become a great timer rather than a prepared participant.
Plasma tail
Consists of brightly glowing ionized atoms and molecules. It increases as the comet approaches the Sun and is always directed in the opposite direction from it.
Dust tail
Usually the brightest of comet tails and the most extended of the objects found in the Solar System, reaching a length of several tens of millions of kilometers.
Of course, a study-per-day preparation system is great for organizing your time. In this way, you can maintain a clear conscience to separate sleep hours, meal times, leisure time and work time by choosing the right study hours.
Discover the secrets to boost your studies!
Sorry this is a big mistake. Let's say you are preparing for any competition and one of the topics you need to study in Portuguese is Verbal and Nominal Regency. It doesn't matter whether you devote one, two, three, four or thousands of hours to the subject, what matters is that you actually learn.
How to make a comet yourself?
In order to touch an average comet or take a close look at how it works, you don’t need to spend crazy millions and equip an expedition. It is enough to build it.
To produce a comet nucleus you will need:
Until we achieve this goal, we will not be able to rest. By doing this you focus on the outcome, it improves your focus, brings you back to what really matters and gets you much more motivated to study rather than being in front of a book waiting for the clock to free you from studying.
In addition to all these benefits, you will save a lot of time learning this system. You're right about the productivity benefits of the system, but I don't have all the time to study. I need to set a start and end time for my research. It's not as difficult as you think. To tailor your research to performance, you need to separate your research topics as much as possible. In the case of our example, “nominal and verbal regency,” one can already find out the nominal regency and then find out the verbal regency.
1.
Dry ice - 2 kg (can be purchased from ice cream sellers; be careful: dry ice has a temperature of -80C, and touching it with bare hands can cause burns);
2.
Water - 2 l;
3.
Ammonia - a few drops of ammonia or a few “sprays” from a window cleaning can;
4.
Sand - a handful;
5.
Starch or Worcestershire sauce - a few pinches or drops;
6.
Garbage bags - 2 pcs;
7.
Large cup or small saucepan;
8.
Rubber or leather gloves (preferably insulated);
9.
Towel;
10.
Paper napkins;
11.
Hammer;
12.
Spoon or spatula for stirring.
If you don't have enough time to study both topics, study only one. The most important thing is to focus on your studies and not on time. Another way to learn more or less than you can learn over a period of time is to evaluate your reading ability. A free and very interesting tool where you can measure this is the speech word count, which will tell you how long, on average, it takes you to read a text.
But you can take tests to estimate the reading time on a page, and then know when an object is too large for a certain reading time. If page count is your average time, study, but forget the clock! Remember the goal: research the topic. Every topic studied is a trophy. The feeling of scratching themes from the program content of the competition is very pleasant.
Comet Making Guide
Step 1. Line the inside of the cup with a garbage bag, and place the second bag on the floor.
Step 2. Pour about half a liter of water into a cup, add starch or sauce, ammonia, a little sand, mix everything thoroughly.
Step 3. Wear gloves, wrap the dry ice in a towel, place it on the second bag and crush it.
In this article, we have seen how most of the candidates in the public competition are mistaken in their study system, which contributes to wasting time rather than studying the subjects. We've seen how the brain behaves in both learning systems, and we'll learn how to balance time with the need to focus on results.
Now I need you to leave a comment talking about the system you are using and how you are adapting to these learning opportunities. An artist's view of an asteroid on impact with Earth. Asteroids pose a real threat to humanity, and if it plunges into the ocean, it will raise a destructive wave several tens of meters in height. Disaster for neighboring coastal cities.
Step 4. Pour the resulting ice crumbs into a cup in a thin stream, stirring constantly. This will create thick steam. The result is a swelling snow mass. Continue stirring the mixture for a few more seconds after it stops swelling.
Step 5. Remove the bag with the resulting snow from the cup and roll the snow into a strong lump.
Step 6. Roll the resulting lump in the remaining sand and pour water evenly over it on all sides until a monolithic ice crust forms.
Step 7 After the formation of the crust, the process of making the comet's nucleus can be considered complete. If a crack now forms in it when heated, fountains of carbon dioxide mixed with ammonia will flow out of it. The resulting comet should be stored in a freezer, wrapped in napkins, and exposed to the Sun for demonstration..
On February 4, 2004, Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook. February 13, 2004 scientists South Korea 30 human embryos were cloned, and mobile phones were banned in North Korea on May 24, 2004. On July 1, 2004, the Vatican finally received full (except for the ability to vote) membership in the UN. On September 21, construction began on the Burj Khalifa skyscraper. On October 20, 2004, the first release of the Ubuntu operating system was released. In the same year, the infamous seizure and storming of a school in Beslan occurred, which resulted in multiple casualties, and the first Ukrainian revolution took place. Against the background of these events, the launch on March 2, 2004 from the Kourou cosmodrome in French Guiana of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle with the Rosetta automatic space station on board went almost unnoticed, especially since the main mission of the device, the study of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko) , was supposed to begin only 10 years later - in 2014. And now 10 years have passed.
Why study comets?
Unlike scientific missions on planets and their satellites, the study of comets does not have any practical value. It is impossible to colonize the ice blocks rushing around the solar system. Due to high speeds, eccentricity of orbits and long orbital times, mining on comets, even if such minerals are discovered, is unlikely.
Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of 100 km
On the other hand, comets are one of the few objects available to us that have remained virtually unchanged since the formation of these celestial bodies 4.6 billion years ago. Like asteroids and dwarf planets, comets, despite the aggressive influence of the Sun, are excellent laboratories for studying the conditions that existed in the solar system in the early stages of its formation. A correct understanding of the processes and chronology of the origin of planetary systems is fundamental for many areas of astronomy.
Scientists hope that, like the Rosetta Stone that gave the device its name, which once made it possible to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, Rosetta will help unravel the mysteries of the formation of the Solar system.
So the study of comets is pure science, the satisfaction of the curiosity inherent in the best representatives of humanity.
Background
NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) were the first to become interested in the study of comets using automatic space stations. In 1982, after the end of the main mission of the International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3), which hovered for five years at the Lagrange point in heliostationary orbit, it was sent to meet comet Giacobini-Zinner (21P/Giacobini-Zinner), “ responsible" for meteor shower Draconids (maximum October 8-10). ISEE-3 encountered the comet on September 11, 1985, passing through its tail at a distance of 7862 km from the nucleus. Unfortunately, no cameras were installed on board the station, so the researchers did not receive any images. However, all this was started for the sake of a completely different comet, the next return of which was supposed to take place in 1986 - famous comet Halley.
Legendary ISEE-3 Pioneer An entire international space fleet - five spacecraft - was preparing to launch for it. ISEE-3 also took part in the ceremony, examining the comet's tail from afar, from a distance of 28 million km. But this is not the end of ISEE-3’s service to science. The device entered a heliocentric orbit and continued to provide information to scientists. Regular communication with it was maintained until 1999. And as it turned out after a control communication session in 2008, at least one of the satellite’s instruments continued to function, so there was hope for the reactivation of the device. In 2014, the crowdfunding project ISEE-3 Reboot Project was launched, which successfully raised $150 thousand. Alas, it was not possible to launch ISEE-3 into the desired orbit, although five of the station’s thirteen scientific instruments were operational again. As part of the Interplanetary Citizen Science Mission, a team of enthusiasts will continue to collect data from the space survivor. However, we digress.
So, the entire international space community was preparing to meet Halley's comet (Halley, not Galileo!). Halley's armada included two Soviet devices "Vega-1" and "Vega-2", two Japanese - Sakigake and Suisei, and a European Giotto.
The Vega project was the last big space project of the USSR - their descent vehicles not only landed on the surface of Venus and dropped unique balloon probes into its atmosphere, but also transmitted the first photographs of the comet’s nucleus, passing at a distance of 8889 and 8030 km from it 6 and 9 March 1986, respectively. Moreover, the data collected by Vega helped correct the trajectory of Giotto, which on March 14, 1986 was able to get within 596 km of Halley’s comet. In total, both Vegas took about 1,500 photographs of the comet, collected information about the composition of the coma, the characteristics of the plasma, etc.
Interplanetary space station "Vega", model Giotto came closer to the nucleus and, unexpectedly for scientists, even survived the rapprochement, although impacts from cometary dust turned the device around and disabled its camera, which still managed to transmit a picture of the nucleus at close range. After meeting with the comet, Giotto's orbit was adjusted, and the satellite itself was put into sleep until 1990. The Awakened One set off for a rendezvous with another comet, Grigg-Skjellerup (26P/Grigg-Skjellerup). And although in the second case the device rushed past the comet at a distance of only 200 km, it was not possible to obtain images due to a camera malfunction. Giotto collected unique data on the composition of the cometary nucleus, coma density, rate of mass loss, etc.
Giotto probe The Japanese Suisei probe examined Halley's comet from a distance of 152,400 km and also received several impacts from microparticles. An attempt to intercept the comet Giacobini-Zinner in 1998 failed due to lack of fuel.
Sakigake studied the important guest from a distance of 6.99 million km. And also, as a sister device, was unable to meet with 21P/Giacobini-Zinner in 1998.
The next comet that was lucky enough to become the object of study was 81P/Wild (81P/Wild, or Wild 2). The United States, which did not have time to participate in the 1986 international space regatta due to cuts in NASA funding, decided to outpace its competitors by returning comet dust samples to Earth for the first time. For this spacecraft Stardust, heading towards the comet, was equipped with 132 airgel-filled cells to capture cosmic dust. Launched on February 7, 1999, the device flew on November 2, 2002 near the asteroid Annefrank and on January 2, 2004, approached Comet Wild at a distance of 237 km. The samples returned to Earth on January 16, 2006. Due to the peculiarities of the vehicle’s orbit, the speed of entry into the dense layers of the atmosphere was a huge 12.9 km/s (this record still holds), overloads during landing reached 34 g, and the heat shield heated up up to 2900 C°. Interestingly, the search for microparticles of comet dust stuck in layers of airgel was carried out by amateur astronomers who studied layer-by-layer micrographs of airgel as part of the Stardust@home project. The main part of Stardust@home has already been completed, but scientists plan to launch a new phase of research soon.
Stardust space dust catcher We cannot ignore NASA's Deep Impact mission to comet 9P/Tempel 1. Launched on January 12, 2005, the device successfully dropped the so-called impactor onto the surface of the comet - a 370-kilogram copper bar with a camera, guidance system and sensors, which created a crater with a diameter of about 100 m, which was later recorded by Stardust flying past. The ejection of matter made it possible to analyze the cometary nucleus, and the results forced scientists to partially revise the theory of comet formation. Deep Impact was able to visit the largest number of comets in a single flight. After 9P/Tempel, he went to 103P/Hartley, exploring comets Garradd (C/2009 P1) and C/2012 S1 (ISON) from afar. Unfortunately, after this the connection with the device was interrupted.
It's time for Rosetta.
Rosetta Mission
The fundamental difference between the Rosetta mission and previous ones is the use not of a collision or flyby trajectory, in which relative speeds can reach tens of kilometers per second, but of entering a solar orbit similar to the orbit of a comet and carefully approaching at minimum speeds. At the time of the first meeting, the speed of the comet and the apparatus was 15.2 km/s, while the relative speed was only 1 m/s.
Rosetta at the assembly stand, 2003 By and large, comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a completely ordinary celestial body, and in general, it was initially planned that Rosetta would go to another target - comet 46P/Wirtanen. But due to the accident of the Ariane 5 launch vehicle shortly before the planned launch, the launch window closed and scientists found an alternative - 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
As stated at the outset, Rosetta launched from Kourou on March 2, 2004, 14 months later than the original planned date. To enter an orbit parallel to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the spacecraft needed four gravity maneuvers - three around Earth and one near Mars. It was these maneuvers that led to an increase in mission time, however, everything was calculated in advance and went strictly according to plan.
During the journey, Rosetta managed to observe from afar the Deep Impact mission on 9P/Tempela and record the collision of the impactor with a comet, visit the small asteroid 2867 Šteins, passing on September 5, 2008 at a distance of 800 km from it, examine the dust tail of the small body P/2010 A2, fly past at a distance of 3162 km large asteroid 21 Lutetia. In 2011, the vehicle, which had gone beyond the orbit of Mars, fell into hibernation, from which it emerged in the area of Jupiter’s orbit on January 20, 2014. From May to July 2014, Rosetta conducted a series of maneuvers, reducing the relative speed from 775 m/s to 1 m/s s, approaching the comet from cosmic 2 million km to quite tangible 100 km.
The device will spend the entire August mapping the comet, providing us with unique images of this celestial body from extremely close range. And scientists will choose a landing site for the Philae lander. Its landing is scheduled for November 2014.
The end of the mission is scheduled for December 2015. By that time, the comet and both devices will again go into deep space, and the energy from the solar panels will no longer be enough for the functioning of the electronics. Given the possible damage from microparticles and dust on the panels, this may happen earlier.
The final part of the Rosetta mission, illustrated before the shape of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was known Rosetta will allow scientists to observe the transformation of the comet as it approaches the Sun, and not only in close proximity from the celestial body, but also from its surface, thanks to the Philae lander. In addition, one of the tasks of both devices is to search for organic components, the very seeds of life that comets could have brought to Earth millions of years ago.
More than 50 subcontractors, specialists and companies from 14 took part in the creation of the device. European countries. On board the three-ton Rosetta core module, 11 instruments were placed to study the comet's nucleus, coma gases and particles of matter. Among them: three spectrographs for different purposes, a long-focus (140 and 700 mm) OSIRIS camera, which allows obtaining images with a resolution of 2048 × 2048 pixels, a scanning atomic force microscope for studying dust, etc. An experiment on radar scanning of a comet, which will allow one to obtain a kind of “tomography” of the nucleus, should also be interesting.
Rosetta and Philae The orbital module is powered by solar panels with a span of 32 m. At a distance of 3.4 astronomical units from the Sun, in the asteroid belt, it is capable of delivering 850 W, and in Jupiter orbit (5.25 AU) - only 295 W. This is why Rosetta “falls asleep” when moving away from the Sun.
In times of gigabit channels and huge files, the speed of information transfer from the Rosetta probe is amazing. The decimeter antenna provides a transmission speed of 7.8 bit/s (M and K are not skipped at the beginning, namely bit/s), and the centimeter antenna provides 22 kbit/s. And this despite the fact that the solid-state memory array for storing software and measurement data installed on the probe has a volume of 25 GB.
Philae lander The design of the Philae lander, named after the island on the Nile where the Rosetta Stone was found, is also interesting. The comet's mass is not sufficient to create a full gravitational field, so landing requires special tools. When approaching the surface at a speed of 1 m/s, Philae must harpoon the comet and pull itself towards it. After this, drills in three landing rods will come into play, which will “screw” the device to the surface.
Covered in solar panels, the baby Philae weighs 100 kg, 21 of which is scientific equipment. The lander is equipped with a CCD camera that will take pictures during approach and after landing. In addition, the equipment includes several spectrometers, microchambers for studying the surface, a gas chromograph for studying samples, drills for drilling the surface, instruments for sound and electrical probing of the core, etc. Philae is expected to spend one to six weeks on the comet's surface.
Philae at work Waiting to board
Rosetta will spend the coming months approaching the comet. The most interesting thing, the landing of Philae, is scheduled for November 2014. However, the device is already transmitting interesting information and unique images of the nucleus of comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of less than 100 km. What is happening now somewhere beyond the orbit of Mars is the most ambitious event in unmanned astronautics since the landing in August 2012.
Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of 81 km and another angle We wish Rosetta and Philae, as well as their creators, good luck in deep space exploration, especially such complex ones, this is also an important factor.
The European Space Agency website will help you keep up to date with the latest news from Rosetta. The photos of the comet are truly mesmerizing.