In November last year, the European Space Agency launched the next phase of the mission, whose aim was to examine a passing comet through the solar system 67-P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This was particularly important task, since for the first time in history, earthly vehicle were to land on a comet moving through deep space and to provide scientists with valuable information.
The mission was carried out in two ways, namely Philae after 10 years of law enforcement comet landed on its surface. However, a ship Rosetta, which supplied the lander, he had to study it from orbit. Scientists hoped that the lander on a comet will remain at least until March of this year, constantly sending data to Earth.
The mission was not carried out as planned, as the Philae lander, although he settled on the surface of a space rock and began his work but was quickly exhausted batteries him, so went into hibernation for about seven months. Currently the comet approached already to the Sun, so the solar panels began to produce energy and vehicle woke up. Last weekend connectivity established with him for about two minutes, during which sent 300 packets of data that will allow scientists to better understand our solar system, and which contains information on the samples taken from the surface of a comet.
ESA estimates that in the memory of the lander may be even 8000 data packets that should be provided during subsequent contacts.
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