An nearly two-year-long cosmic search party has come to an end, with scientists at the Euorpean Space Agency spying their Philae comet lander wedged into a dark crack on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
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Europe’s Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.
The image is proof Philae’s awkward orientation made it hard for the ESA to establish communications.
Philae’s primary battery was exhausted within days and the lander went into hibernation. The lander briefly awoke for a moment past year when the comet traveled closer to the sun, but then all went dark again.
The news about the discovery of Philae has come only weeks before Rosetta is all ready for a dramatic touchdown itself on the surface of 67P to bring the mission to an end.In a statement on September 5, ESA officials expressed their happiness over the discovery of Philae at almost the last minute.
File- High-resolution cameras on Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft have found space probe Philae, which successfully landed on a comet in a pinpoint operation only to lose power because its solar-driven batteries were in the shade.
Last week, however, Rosetta finally captured imagery of the missing lander – doing what it had failed to do during a half-dozen previous flybys.
Unfortunately however, the end is nigh for Rosetta, as the spacecraft’s ever-increasing distance from the Sun and Earth means it will receive significantly reduced solar power in order to operate the craft and its instruments. Rosetta’s mission is slated to end in less than a month with a planned crash landing on the comet’s surface.
The final resting place of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Philae comet lander is no longer a mystery.
Three months later, Rosetta sent the 100-kilogramme (220-pound) probe down to the comet surface, starting a deep-space saga closely followed around the world via cartoon recreations of the pioneering pair. The 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. Yet its precise location remained unknown until now. Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist, said in a statement.
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In particular it will investigate open fissures on the comet’s surface that are hoped to provide more information on the interior structure of the comet.
