Rosetta spacecraft has analyzed dust samples from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for the first time, which could reveal the origins of the solar system.
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The Rosetta orbiter is now scheduled to descend to the comets surface at the end of September 2016. “I’ve found @Philae2014!” announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter. His passion for space ignited when he watched space shuttle Discovery leap to space on October 29, 1998.
The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation, making it clear why establishing communications was so hard following its landing on 12 November 2014.
Three months later, Rosetta sent the 100-kilogramme probe down to the comet surface, starting a deep-space saga closely followed around the world via cartoon recreations of the pioneering pair.
Ideally, Philae would have ended up like this on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists plan to gather data all the way down.
But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to generate enough electricity via its solar-cell panels, Philae shut down after transmitting for 57 hours.
After three days, Philae’s primary battery was exhausted and the lander went into hibernation, only to wake up again and communicate briefly with Rosetta in June and July 2015 as the comet came closer to the Sun and more power was available. “Even the largest dust particle we present is smaller than a human hair, and the smallest is roughly the size of a bacterium”. The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation. “It would be very surprising if we received a signal now”.
Cecilia Tubiana, of ESA’s Osiris camera team, was the first person to see the pictures when they reached Earth on Sunday after being taken on 2 September. Images showed Philae’s distinctive box shape and two of its three legs wedged underneath a rocky overhang on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. “With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such wonderful detail”, says Cecilia Tubiana, a member of the OSIRIS camera team.
“This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search”, said Dr. Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta Mission Manager. The images from Rosetta, taken at a distance of 2.7km, confirm Philae’s shadowy final resting place but the lander will remain inoperable, Esa confirmed. What Rosetta learns in its final hours could help scientists learn vital information about the comet’s interior structure.
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The ESA plans to crash-land Rosetta onto the comet on September 30, because the craft is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun.
