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Post by auntym on Dec 10, 2013 12:46:58 GMT -6
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25186770 10 December 2013 Rosetta: Anxious wait for comet chaser wake up By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC World Service Philae will deploy ice screws and harpoons to hold itself down on the comet's surface Scientists say they are in for an anxious wait as they prepare to wake a comet-chasing probe from deep-space hibernation. In January, they will attempt to bring the Rosetta spacecraft back online so it can journey towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Once it has reached the huge mass of ice and rock, the team will try to deploy a lander on the comet's surface. Details were announced at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting. Rosetta's project scientist Matt Taylor, from the European Space Agency (Esa), said: "This has never been done before. "You have the hurdle of getting it back on, then there is a massive hurdle of getting it close to the comet... And then there's landing on it. "This is going to be a year of intensity." The Rosetta probe was launched in March 2004, and has been on an epic journey through the Solar System. It has orbited the Earth three times and then performed a slingshot around Mars to place it on a path towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After travelling many millions of kilometres, and passing two asteroids along the way, the Esa craft was put into deep sleep - that is, the spacecraft is turned off bar its alarm clock - in June 2011. This has enabled it to conserve its power for the final, risky stages of its journey. Waking it up again will be "nerve-wracking", Dr Taylor told the BBC. "It has an internal alarm clock... the clock will say it's time to wake up," he said. CONTINUE READING: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25186770
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Post by auntym on Dec 10, 2013 13:39:08 GMT -6
outerplaces.com/universe/technology/item/2716-scientists-will-use-a-hibernating-spacecraft-to-land-a-robot-on-a-comet Outer Places @outerplaces Hibernating spacecraft and robots landing on comets. This isn't sci-fi this is happening next month! ow.ly/rDqvg Scientists Will Use A Hibernating Spacecraft To Land A Robot On Comet 67PThe ESA spacecraft Rosetta has spent the last 31 months hibernating in deep space, but in a matter of weeks it will be awakened from its slumber and sent in pursuit of the Comet 67P. Once it arrives, it will attempt to place a robotic lander on the comet's surface. While this sounds like the opening scene of the latest sci-fi movie, it is in fact very, very real....and incredibly cool. In January, the European Space Agency will take up the task of restarting Rosetta, which was initially launched into space all the way back in March 2004. With no active systems other than an internal clock, the initialization procedures will take the best part of 24 hours, after which Rosetta will begin its journey towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Once it is close enough, the team's toughest task begins, placing a robotic lander called Philae, onto the comet's icy surface. Should Philae land successfully, it will start taking samples of comet just as it makes a close pass to the sun in late 2015. Rosetta has already travelled thousands of kilometers since its launch almost a decade ago, orbiting Earth 3 times and slingshotting around Mars, but after a 31 month hibernation it is set to begin a journey that will potentially unlock the secrets behind the icy objects that hurtle through our solar system. However, the mission's success is by no means guaranteed and as ESA Scientist Dr. Matt Taylor tells the BBC the team face many nervous moments over the course of the next year. "You have the hurdle of getting it back on and then there is the massive hurdle of getting it close to the comet....and there's landing on it," said Taylor who concludes that "This is going to be a year of intensity." Well Dr. Taylor, it may be a year of intensity but if you guys pull this off, this will be yet another case of science truly catching up with science fiction. - See more at: outerplaces.com/universe/technology/item/2716-scientists-will-use-a-hibernating-spacecraft-to-land-a-robot-on-a-comet#sthash.cg2QEfjA.dpufHow Rosetta wakes up from deep space hibernation Published on Dec 10, 2013 Visualisation of how the Rosetta spacecraft wakes up from deep space hibernation, 673 million kilometres from the Sun, on 20 January 2014. Prior to entering hibernation on 8 June 2011, Rosetta was oriented so that its solar arrays faced the Sun, and it began rotating once per minute for stability. The only devices left running were its computer and several heaters. Rosetta's computer is programmed to carry out a sequence of events to re-establish contact with the Earth on 20 January, starting with an 'alarm clock' at 10:00 GMT. Immediately after, the star trackers begin to warm up. Around 6 hours later the thrusters are fired and the slow rotation stops. A slight adjustment is made to Rosetta's orientation to ensure that the solar arrays now face the Sun. Then the star trackers switch on to determine its attitude. The spacecraft rotates towards Earth, and the transmitter is switched on. Then Rosetta's high-gain antenna points to Earth and the signal is sent. The journey takes 45 minutes before the signal is received and mission controllers can begin to check Rosetta's health, ready for the next phase of the mission. The first opportunity for receiving a signal on Earth is between 17:30 GMT and 18:30 GMT.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2013 17:12:45 GMT -6
This will be tricky.I question if it will survive the bow shock ? I guess we'll know soon.
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Post by auntym on Jan 1, 2014 11:50:55 GMT -6
io9.com/this-spidery-spacecraft-will-be-the-first-to-soft-land-1491670753by Elizabeth Howell — Universe Today December 30, 2013 'Philae', This spidery spacecraft will be the first to soft-land on a cometArtist's impression of Philae, the lander from the Rosetta spacecraft, descending to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in November 2014. Credit: ESA–J. Huart, 2013 The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is preparing to wake up in January from a nearly three-year-long hibernation period as it prepares for a close encounter with Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. If all goes well, Rosetta should reach its destination in August and, after a couple of months in a mapping orbit, the probe will deploy a spider-like lander called Philae on the surface in November. That will be the first time anything has soft-landed on a comet. Philae has a ream of scientific instruments on board, most notably a drill that can penetrate as far as 20 centimeters (eight inches) into whatever lies below it. It can then pick up the samples and analyze them right on sight. This will allow the lander to learn more about what the comet's surface and subsurface are made of, ESA says, and to figure out how its nucleus is constructed. (You can read more technical details here.) sci.esa.int/rosetta/31445-instruments/A big concern, of course, is keeping Philae anchored on the low gravity of the comet (as was covered extensively in this past Universe Today story). "As Philae touches down on the comet, two harpoons will anchor it to the surface; the self-adjusting landing gear will ensure that it stays upright, even on a slope, and then the lander's feet will drill into the ground to secure it to the comet's surface in the low gravity environment," ESA wrote. Published on Dec 20, 2013 Visualisation of the deployment of the Philae lander from Rosetta at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014. Rosetta will come to within 2.5 km of the comet's surface to deploy Philae, which will then take around 2 hours to reach the surface. Because of the comet's extremely low gravity, a landing gear will absorb the small forces occurring during landing while ice screws in the probe's feet and a harpoon system will lock the probe to the surface. At the same time a thruster on top of the lander will push it down to counteract the impulse of the harpoon imparted in the opposite direction. Once it is anchored to the comet, the lander will begin its primary science mission, based on its 64-hour initial battery lifetime. Then it will use solar cells to recharge and attempt to operate for several further weeks to months, depending on the activity of the comet and how quickly the solar cells are covered in dust. Credits: ESA/ATG medialab CONTINUE READING: io9.com/this-spidery-spacecraft-will-be-the-first-to-soft-land-1491670753THE ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN UNIVERSE TODAY: www.universetoday.com/107586/spider-like-spacecraft-aims-to-touch-a-comet-next-year/
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2014 18:23:23 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jan 22, 2014 16:59:56 GMT -6
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/01/rosetta-spacecraft-calls-home-on-course-to-1st-ever-landing-on-a-comets-surface.html#moreJanuary 21, 2014 Rosetta Spacecraft "Calls Home" --On Course to 1st Ever Landing on a CometThe Daily Galaxy via ESA It was a fairy-tale ending to a tense chapter in the story of the Rosetta space mission this evening as ESA heard from its distant spacecraft for the first time in 31 months. Rosetta is chasing down Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will become the first space mission to rendezvous with a comet, the first to attempt a landing on a comet’s surface, and the first to follow a comet as it swings around the Sun. Since its launch in 2004, Rosetta has made three flybys of Earth and one of Mars to help it on course to its rendezvous with 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, encountering asteroids Steins and Lutetia along the way. Operating on solar energy alone, Rosetta was placed into a deep space slumber in June 2011 as it cruised out to a distance of nearly 800 million km from the warmth of the Sun, beyond the orbit of Jupiter. Now, as Rosetta’s orbit has brought it back to within ‘only’ 673 million km from the Sun, there is enough solar energy to power the spacecraft fully again. Thus today, still about 9 million km from the comet, Rosetta’s pre-programmed internal ‘alarm clock’ woke up the spacecraft. After warming up its key navigation instruments, coming out of a stabilising spin, and aiming its main radio antenna at Earth, Rosetta sent a signal to let mission operators know it had survived the most distant part of its journey. The signal was received by both NASA’s Goldstone and Canberra ground stations at 18:18 GMT/ 19:18 CET, during the first window of opportunity the spacecraft had to communicate with Earth. It was immediately confirmed in ESA’s space operations centre in Darmstadt and the successful wake-up announced via the @esa_Rosetta twitter account, which tweeted: “Hello, World!” “We have our comet-chaser back,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. “With Rosetta, we will take comet exploration to a new level. This incredible mission continues our history of ‘firsts’ at comets, building on the technological and scientific achievements of our first deep space mission Giotto, which returned the first close-up images of a comet nucleus as it flew past Halley in 1986.” “This was one alarm clock not to hit snooze on, and after a tense day we are absolutely delighted to have our spacecraft awake and back online,” adds Fred Jansen, ESA’s Rosetta mission manager. Comets are considered the primitive building blocks of the Solar System and likely helped to ‘seed’ Earth with water, perhaps even the ingredients for life. But many fundamental questions about these enigmatic objects remain, and through its comprehensive, in situ study of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta aims to unlock the secrets contained within. “All other comet missions have been flybys, capturing fleeting moments in the life of these icy treasure chests,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. “With Rosetta, we will track the evolution of a comet on a daily basis and for over a year, giving us a unique insight into a comet’s behaviour and ultimately helping us to decipher their role in the formation of the Solar System.” But first, essential health checks on the spacecraft must be completed. Then the eleven instruments on the orbiter and ten on the lander will be turned on and prepared for studying Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. “We have a busy few months ahead preparing the spacecraft and its instruments for the operational challenges demanded by a lengthy, close-up study of a comet that, until we get there, we know very little about,” says Andrea Accomazzo, ESA’s Rosetta operations manager. Rosetta’s first images of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are expected in May, when the spacecraft is still 2 million km from its target. Towards the end of May, the spacecraft will execute a major manoeuvre to line up for its critical rendezvous with the comet in August. CONTINUE READING: www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/01/rosetta-spacecraft-calls-home-on-course-to-1st-ever-landing-on-a-comets-surface.html#more
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Post by swamprat on Nov 8, 2014 12:02:05 GMT -6
How Rosetta's Philae Lander Will Land on a Cometby Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer | November 07, 2014 The Rosetta mission's Philae lander is expected to make its landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12.
Philae (named for an obelisk found on an island of the same name in the Nile River) is due to be released from the Rosetta spacecraft at 3:35 a.m. EST (0835 GMT) next Wednesday. Both spacecraft arrived at Comet 67P/C-G in August, and they are currently orbiting about 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) from the comet. While other missions have impacted comets before, if successful, the Philae landing will mark the first time scientists have soft-landed a probe on a comet's surface.
Scientists are hoping to use the instruments aboard Philae and Rosetta to learn more about comets — which are remnants left over from the dawn of the solar system. The data gathered by the space probes might even help researchers trace the origins of water in the solar system.www.space.com/27680-rosetta-comet-landing-webcast.html
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Post by swamprat on Nov 12, 2014 10:58:26 GMT -6
European Spacecraft Lands on Comet in Historic Space Featby Miriam Kramer, Space.com Staff Writer | November 12, 2014 11:13am ET
For the first time in history, a spacecraft from Earth has landed on the face of a comet speeding through deep space.
The European Space Agency's Philae lander on the Rosetta spacecraft made its nail-biting, history-making touchdown on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko today (Nov. 12). Mission controllers are still trying to determine whether Philae's harpoons fired to anchor it to the surface of the comet. The landing ended what some scientists had dubbed "seven hours of terror" - the time it took for Philae to descend from Rosetta as the spacecraft and comet flew through space about 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) from Earth.
People started hugging, cheering and celebrating as soon as mission controllers got confirmation that the lander successfully touched down on the surface of the comet. Officials are now trying to determine whether they need to re-fire the probe's harpoons to be sure it stays in place on the comet. ESA officials confirmed that the spacecraft made its soft landing on the comet at a little bit after 11 a.m. EST (1600 GMT) today.
www.space.com/27740-rosetta-comet-landing-success.html
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Post by swamprat on Nov 12, 2014 11:38:30 GMT -6
Trouble for comet lander: Spacecraft's anchors fail to deployLondon (CNN) -- Touchdown! The Philae probe has landed on the surface of a comet, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) announced Wednesday.
It is the first time a soft landing has been achieved on a comet.
However, project scientists believe anchors that hold the probe to the surface failed to work properly and are now trying to find out why, according to ESA tweets.
Shortly after landing was confirmed, the probe tweeted: "Touchdown! My new address: 67P!" Later, it tweeted again: "I'm on the surface but my harpoons did not fire."
ESA director Jean-Jacques Dordain told colleagues who had waited anxiously for confirmation of the landing. "This is a big step for human civilization. The biggest problem with success is it looks easy." And William Shatner,who played Captain Kirk in the science fiction series "Star Trek" tweeted: "touchdown confirmed for away team @philae2014, captain!"
Led by ESA with a consortium of partners including NASA, scientists on the Rosetta mission hope to learn more about the composition of comets and how they interact with the solar wind -- high energy particles blasted into space by the Sun.
The Philae lander separated from the mother ship Rosetta around 3:30 a.m. ET to begin its 7-hour descent.
www.cnn.com/2014/11/12/world/comet-landing-countdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
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Post by auntym on Nov 12, 2014 14:38:35 GMT -6
the @google doodle for today - very cool!
EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY: www.esa.int/ESA
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Post by auntym on Nov 12, 2014 16:48:19 GMT -6
Philae landing: touchdown highlightsEuropean Space Agency, ESA Published on Nov 12, 2014 Highlights from coverage of ESA's Rosetta mission soft-landing its Philae probe on a comet, the first time in history that such an extraordinary feat has been achieved. After a tense wait during the seven-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the signal confirming the successful touchdown arrived on Earth at 16:03 GMT (17:03 CET). More about Rosetta at: www.esa.int/rosetta
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Post by auntym on Nov 13, 2014 13:32:28 GMT -6
www.space.com/27757-rosetta-comet-landing-philae-science.html?adbid=532933444599160832&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856&cmpid=514648_20141113_35529947 Riding a Comet: What's Next for Rosetta's Philae After Historic Landing?by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer November 13, 2014 Europe's Rosetta orbiter photographs the mission's Philae lander after it deployed and headed down to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12, 2014. Credit: ESA The next few days will be action-packed for Europe's Philae lander, if the probe did indeed manage to survive its historic comet landing intact. Philae, part of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission, touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Wednesday (Nov. 12), becoming the first spacecraft ever to make a soft landing on one of these icy remnants of the solar system's long-ago formation. Philae's two harpoon anchors did not fire as planned during the touchdown, however, and the 220-lb. (100 kilograms) probe may have bounced off 67P before settling back down on the comet's surface. [See images from the comet-landing mission] Mission officials likely won't know the lander's condition and fate until Thursday morning (Nov. 13); Rosetta team members will announce the latest news at 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) Thursday during a press conference, which you can watch live here on Space.com. But Philae has already beamed data home to Earth, suggesting that it may have overcome the landing hiccup, team members said. "Hopefully, we are sitting there on the surface at a position slightly different to the original landing [site] and can continue our science sequence," Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center, said during a news conference Wednesday. If Philae is indeed safe and sound on the surface of 67P, it should already be quite busy. The mission plan calls for the lander's "first science sequence" phase, or FSS, to start immediately upon touchdown and continue until its primary batteries run out. This will likely happen after two to three days, ESA officials have said. "The FSS provides 'a first taste of the comet' in a way impossible to achieve through a flyby or orbiting spacecraft," Philae lead scientist Hermann Böhnhardt wrote in a blog post in September. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/27757-rosetta-comet-landing-philae-science.html?adbid=532933444599160832&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856&cmpid=514648_20141113_35529947
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Post by auntym on Mar 23, 2015 14:08:17 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta
Good morning Solar System! Today I’m 441 million km from Earth & 305 million km from the Sun. 142 days to perihelion!
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Post by auntym on Mar 24, 2015 13:20:27 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Apr 3, 2015 14:15:21 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta Greetings and huge thanks to my 300,000 twitter friends, old and new, for following my adventures at #67P!
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Post by auntym on Jun 14, 2015 12:16:45 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta
Incredible news! My lander Philae is awake!
You’ve had a long sleep, about 7 months! … www.space.com/29661-philae-comet-lander-wakes-up.html?cmpid=514648 It's Alive! Comet Lander Philae Phones Home After Months of Silenceby Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor June 14, 2015 A European probe that made a bouncy landing on a comet last year, and then slipped into a silent hibernation, is alive again and phoning home. The European Space Agency's Philae comet lander, which dropped onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from the Rosetta spacecraft last November, beamed an 85-second wake-up message to Earth via Rosetta yesterday (June 13), ESA officials announced today. It was the first signal from Philae in seven months since the probe fell silent on Nov. 15 after its historic comet landing. "Philae is doing very well," Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), said in a statement. "The lander is ready for operations." [See more comet photos from Rosetta and Philae] According to Ulamec, Philae is currently experience temperatures of minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 35 degrees Celsius) and has about 24 watts of power available. During its wake-up call to Earth, Philae beamed 300 data packets home and was most likely active before the first signal reached Earth on Saturday, ESA officials said. "We have also received historical data – so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier," Ulamec said in the same statement. Philae is a solar-powered probe about the size of a washing machine that landed on Comet 67P on Nov. 12, 2014. It dropped to the surface from its mothership Rosetta, but bounced twice when its anchor-like harpoon system failed to secure it to the surface. The probe ultimately ended up in the shadow of a cliff face on the comet. After about 60 hours the probe's batteries ran out and it went into hibernation on Nov. 15. Over the last seven months, Rosetta and Philae mission scientists in Europe have hoped that once Comet 67P approached closer to the sun, Philae might receive enough sunlight to wake itself up from its forced slumber. Those hopes, it seems, have finally been realized. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/29661-philae-comet-lander-wakes-up.html?cmpid=514648
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Post by auntym on Jul 30, 2015 14:31:19 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jul 30, 2015 14:41:22 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Aug 12, 2015 15:19:34 GMT -6
www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4687August 11, 2015 Rosetta Comet Outburst CapturedA short-lived outburst from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was captured by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on July 29, 2015. Image credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS › Full image and caption The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has been witnessing growing activity from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as the comet approaches perihelion (its closest point to the sun during its orbit). On July 29, while the spacecraft orbited at a distance of 116 miles (186 kilometers) from the comet, it observed the most dramatic outburst to date. Early science results collected during the outburst came from several instruments aboard Rosetta, including the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS), which uses NASA-built electronics. The DFMS is part of the spacecraft's Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. When the outburst occurred, the spectrometer recorded dramatic changes in the composition of outpouring gases from the comet when compared to measurements made two days earlier. As a result of the outburst, the amount of carbon dioxide increased by a factor of two, methane by four, and hydrogen sulfide by seven, while the amount of water stayed almost constant. "This first quick look at our measurements after the outburst is fascinating," said Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator for the ROSINA instrument from the University of Bern, Switzerland. "We also see hints of heavy organic material after the outburst that might be related to the ejected dust. "But while it is tempting to think that we are detecting material that may have been freed from beneath the comet's surface, it is too early to say for certain that this is the case." A sequence of images taken by Rosetta's scientific camera OSIRIS shows the sudden onset of a well-defined, jet-like feature emerging from the side of the comet's neck. The jet, the brightest seen to date, was first recorded in an image taken at 6:24 a.m. PDT (9:24 a.m. EDT, 13:24 GMT) on July 29, but not in an image taken 18 minutes earlier. The jet then faded significantly in an image captured 18 minutes later. The OSIRIS camera team estimates the material in the jet was traveling at 33 feet per second (10 meters per second), at least. A composite of the three images taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS is online at: rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov CONTINUE READING: www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4687
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Post by auntym on Aug 19, 2015 14:24:32 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta For those who haven't heard it yet: the 'singing comet'
CLICK TO HEAR: soundcloud.com/esaops/a-singing-cometRosetta’s Plasma Consortium (RPC) has uncovered a mysterious ‘song’ that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is singing into space. The comet seems to be emitting a ‘song’ in the form of oscillations in the magnetic field in the comet’s environment. It is being sung at 40-50 millihertz, far below human hearing, which typically picks up sound between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. To make the music audible to the human ear, the frequencies have been increased in this recording. This sonification of the RPC-Mag data was compiled by German composer Manuel Senfft (www.tagirijus.de). Read full details in ESA's Rosetta blog: wp.me/p46DHN-Li
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Post by auntym on Oct 10, 2015 12:11:53 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Nov 13, 2015 14:25:05 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta
Now I'm closer to #67P again (approx 170km today) I'm listening out for @philae2014…wish we could reminisce about #CometLanding together…
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Post by auntym on Apr 19, 2016 12:41:48 GMT -6
ESA Rosetta Mission ✔ @esa_Rosetta
Greetings from space! Starting a new week 422million km from the Sun, 301million from Earth & some 40km from #67P
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2016 11:33:44 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Sept 30, 2016 14:46:06 GMT -6
www.space.com/34265-rosetta-comet-mission-bittersweet-end.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit Death of a Spacecraft: Bittersweet Mood as Rosetta Crash-Lands on CometBy Megan Gannon, Space.com Contributor September 30, 2016 People celebrated in the Rosetta spacecraft mission control room at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, after it touched down on Comet 67P, sending its final signal to Earth Sept. 30, 2016. Credit: ESA DARMSTADT, Germany — When Paolo Ferri went into the control room this morning, the atmosphere was a little gloomy. "I've experienced this with other missions," Ferri, who is head of mission operations here at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), told Space.com. "It's always difficult to accept the end. Me personally, I'm very sad." Today (Sept. 30) marks the end of operations for the European Space Agency's (ESA) historic Rosetta mission. The orbiter had been in space for 12.5 years and had been flying around Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for a little over two years. At 1:19 p.m. local time (7:19 a.m. EDT), project managers received the last signal from Rosetta as the spacecraft made a controlled impact with the comet. [Photos: Europe's Rosetta Comet Mission in Pictures] www.space.com/24266-rosetta-comet-mission-photos-esa.html The scene inside the control room did not at all resemble the jubilation in 2014 when Rosetta woke up from its risky 2.5-year hibernation. Though there was some applause and hugging today, many of the mission managers looked choked up and the mood felt almost funereal as the postlanding celebration began. "A party is probably the best way to fight off depression," said Rolf Densing, director of operations at ESOC. Carrying a suite of 11 scientific experiments and a small lander named Philae, Rosetta was launched in March 2004. But for some at ESA, the mission's history stretches back much longer; the idea for Rosetta was conceived in the 1980s. "That's when the scientists said, 'OK, we have to go to a comet,'" said Ferri. "In the beginning, they thought maybe we could bring a piece of the comet to Earth, but then they abandoned this idea. It made much more sense to bring the instruments there." WATCH VIDEO & CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/34265-rosetta-comet-mission-bittersweet-end.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit ROSETTA'S LAST COMET PHOTOS: www.space.com/34261-rosetta-spacecraft-last-comet-photos-slideshow.html?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_campaign=socialtwitterspc&cmpid=social_spc_514648#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
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Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2017 11:07:45 GMT -6
I have a huge fascination with comets
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