Philae lander: touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

in space on 2014-11-12 18:26 (#2V0N)

We live in amazing times. Ten years after the mission was conceived and set into motion, European scientists have landed a spacecraft on the surface of a comet. Despite the fear stemming from the unknown consistency of the comet's surface, which could have ranged from powdery to tarry frozen to anything in between, Philae sank only 4cm into the surface, which indicates perhaps a slight coating of dust.

Over the coming months as Philae piggybacks on the comet and Rosetta maintains orbit, the data they send back could be key to unlocking answers about the formation of the Solar System, the origins of water on Planet Earth and perhaps even life itself.

Rosetta selfie with Comet 67P in background
The challenge for the flight team operating Rosetta from back on Earth was to land Philae on a rotating, duck-shaped comet travelling through space at 18km/s (40,000mph).

The BBC has tons of coverage of the event. Amazing, simply amazing. If you checked my productivity and web-browsing habits today, you'd discover I checked into the BBC's live coverage this morning and was glued to it for the rest of the day. I wasn't around when we landed on the moon, but this is an even more impressive, technical feat. Congrats to everyone who made this happen!

Re: Conspiracy theorists (Score: 1)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-11-17 09:31 (#2V2Z)

Wow, just visited that article. It's a beaut.

He said he had received an email from an anonymous Esa 'whistle blower' that claimed intelligent-sounding signals had been received from comet 67PChuryumov-Gerasimenko 20 years ago and the object is actually an alien ship in disguise. The email said: 'Do not think for one moment that a space agency would suddenly decide to spend billions of dollars to build and send a spacecraft on a 12-year journey to simply take some close-up images of a randomly-picked-out comet floating in space.

'Comet 67P is not a comet.'
...

The whistle blower, who insisted on remaining anonymous for fear of reprisals, insisted the comet 'is only being disguised as such' and appears able to change trajectory at will. The letter added: 'As for who is disguising it and why I cannot answer; all I can tell you is that whatever this thing is, it does show signs on its outside of machine-like parts and unnatural terrain. 'Whatever this object is it did not ask to be found or scrutinised, and it appears for good reason.' Other theorists spoke of 'alien structures' in images of the comet, in particular a bright white 'metallic' disc on or hovering above the 2.5 mile (4km) wide lump of ice and dust, and a sculpted non-human face.