Landing on a comet – Newsweek Poland

Rosetta mission is a journey not only in space – on the surface of a solid rushing cosmic ice, but also during the expedition until the baby days of our planet.

A historic moment will November 12 – The European Space Agency announced. On this day of the Rosetta space probe, which today is 400 million kilometers from Earth, break off a small lander Philae. Powered Motorized land on the tiny comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, on a cosmic scale smaller than a pinhead. It is a dirty snow ball with a circumference of only 1.5 km, which makes the periphery of the solar system to the Sun.

If the mission goes according to plan. And it takes longer than 10 years, Rosetta was launched 2 March 2004. If the landing is successful, it will be a huge success of the European Space Agency, which has invested in the mission until one billion US dollars. It will also be a triumph of space technologies, which could be constructed remotely operated equipment to allow precise control of the probe. For researchers, it also hoped to gain invaluable data about the comet and find a solution to the two great mysteries of our planet: where did the water on it and, most importantly, how is born on Earth life. Because, according to scientists rushing through the solar system ice lump and one, and the other may have a lot in common.

Philae on Start

Before we settle the great dilemmas of science, you will need to carry out very precise maneuvers approaching the probe to the comet. Everything is planned to the last detail: Rosetta will meet with a comet far from the sun, because the closer the star, the faster it melts the comet’s nucleus, which makes it impossible to land.

How is a comet?

Therefore, the input Rosetta comet’s orbit took place between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Previously, for 30 months, the probe flew free movement, without the engine, driven solely by gravity planets. January 20 this year near Jupiter fired engines and solar panels pointed toward the sun. Began a controlled flight from Earth in the direction of the comet. – There was no way that the probe simply been attracted by gravity into orbit of the comet, because at such a small no gravitational interactions – says astronomer George Rafalski of the Planetarium. W. Dziewulskiego in Torun.