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Wow! News from ESA today. The Rosetta mission will end at the end of this month. It seemed possible that the little lander Philae would not be found before then. It was lost on the comet in November 2014, but from images taken three days ago, it has been found.

Here is the main image with an inset to show the lander.

Quote:
Philae’s 1 m-wide body and two of its three legs can be seen extended from the body. The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation. A Rosetta Navigation Camera image taken on 16 April 2015 is shown at top right for context, with the approximate location of Philae on the small lobe of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko marked.


Credits
Main image and lander inset: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; context: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0



Last edited by Mona - Astronomy; 10/04/16 02:34 AM.
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This is so cool!

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Here is how Philae got lost in the first place. He landed on the target spot, but due to a malfunction didn't grab onto the comet's surface. Two bounces took him into a dark place which meant the solar panels couldn't recharge when the batteries ran out, and no one could quite work out where he was. Until a few days ago!

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It is so awesome that we are able to do have these things! It is a shame that we still have not figured out a way to travel long distances outside our planet but also a blessing considering what we are doing to Earth and also all the junk that is outside (i think most of it ends up falling back here - and also think we left quite a bit of things behind when we went on the Moon)!

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Rosetta's mission ends on September 30th, but meanwhile she's still collecting data about the comet. ESA released this image taken from a distance of 5 km - whew, that's close!

They say,
Quote:
Flying conditions can often be tough so close to Comet #67P: although there might be a few background stars in shot, this is all mostly coma dust. Nearby dust particles are out of focus and appear as diffuse blobs. But at least all this dust makes the science instruments happy!

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Wow that is so cool!

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From left to right the pits measure 125 m, 130 m and 140 m across and are 65 m, 60 m and 50 m deep, respectively.

Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

On 30 September, Rosetta will descend towards a smooth region in Ma’at, on the smaller of the two lobes of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It will target a region that is home to several active pits measuring over 100 m wide and over 50 m deep, with the hope of getting some close-up glimpses of these fascinating features.

The pit adjacent to the target site and identified in the image above as Ma’at 02 has now been named by the mission team: Deir el-Medina, after a pit in an ancient Egyptian town of the same name. Many of the workers that built the pharaoh tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived there. The pit was originally – and unsuccessfully – dug to find water. The pit then became something of a refuse pit for unwanted bits of pottery. This was a delight to archaeologists studying the history of the town, and the astronomers hope the pit on Comet 67P/C-G will help them understand the comet's history in a similar way.

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Only a week to go now before Rosetta's epic mission is complete. ESA has prepared a video timeline of the Rosetta mission accompanied by music by Vangelis from the new album. I love it!

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Today (Sept 26), the Rosetta Mission is being tracked by five ground stations: ESA's 35m dishes at Malargüe, Argentina, and New Norcia, Australia, and by NASA's deep space network dishes DSS 14 (60 m, Goldstone, USA), 55 (34 m, Madrid, Spain) and 43 - this one is the 70 m antenna at Canberra...hern hemisphere.

The Rosetta mission ends on Friday.

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Three more days before Rosetta joins Philae on the comet, saying her last good-bye as one of the most extraordinary space missions ever conceived comes to an end. A delightful - and informative - little cartoon from ESA: Once upon a Time - Rosetta's Grand Finale.

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