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General News Rosetta lander sends back first photo from comet 67P

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by RainDreamer, Nov 13, 2014.

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  1. RainDreamer

    RainDreamer
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    For those who are interest in space, science, or space science:

    Rosetta lander sends back first photo from comet 67P - Technology & Science - CBC News

    Other news site about this: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/12/earthlings-we-landed-on-a-comet.html

    This is the first time in history human were able to land something on a comet (we did crash a few things into it before, but this time is the first soft landing ever). And scientific data from this comet may tell us about the origin of life, namely the theory that comets carries water and amino acids that were instrumental to life on Earth.

    The mission took 30 years to plan, and 10 years for the rosetta probe to catch up with the comet. We reached it at last.
     
    #1 RainDreamer, Nov 13, 2014
  2. Aquilo

    Aquilo
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    Philae has landed at 15:34, 17:25 and 17:32 UTC..

    In other words, it bounced a bit over the surface before finally staying aground. Hopefully they'll be able to get some good data from it, even though the landing wasn't exactly optimal. Luckily the meteoric surface seems to be quite 'soft'. :icon_bigg
     
    #2 Aquilo, Nov 13, 2014
  3. Stripe101

    Stripe101
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    They don't think the lander is going to make it past Saturday because it landed in shade and isn't getting enough sunlight to power its systems. Still, it's pretty incredible that they were able to even get it on the bloody comet.
     
    #3 Stripe101, Nov 14, 2014
  4. RainDreamer

    RainDreamer
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    I wonder if the position will be exposed to more sunlight sometimes as the comet travel around the sun. In that case we just need to latch on the comet a bit longer, maybe firing the harpoons again. Then we can put it to sleep mode and hope it can reactivate again once it has power.


    Edit: Actually, it seems like that is what they did.
    http://gizmodo.com/rosettas-lander-is-now-asleep-but-not-entirely-dead-o-1658916995
     
    #4 RainDreamer, Nov 14, 2014
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