Tag: Comet Landing

  • Rosetta’s last photos of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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    Just before settling to a soft crash landing Friday, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft captured close-range images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, peering into a stadium-sized pit and recording a final dataset to keep scientists busy long after the mission’s end. The craft’s OSIRIS science camera took images throughout Rosetta’s descent and sent the data back…

  • Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown

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    Sequence of images captured by Rosetta during its descent to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The Deir el-Medina pit is just right of center. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Europe’s Rosetta mission ended its 12-year mission Friday with a low-speed belly-flop on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, concluding an interplanetary odyssey that gave humanity a first close-up…

  • Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours

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    Live coverage of the final descent of Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.

  • Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the Rosetta spacecraft just before impact with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The European Space Agency’s $1.6 billion Rosetta spacecraft closed in Thursday for a deliberate crash landing on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko early Friday, a slow-motion kamikaze plunge to bring the enormously successful…

  • Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission

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    Astronomy Now speaks with Matt Taylor, Rosetta project scientist, at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, about the plan to crash land the spacecraft on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

  • Scientists to land, and switch off, Rosetta comet probe in September

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    Artist’s concept of the Rosetta spacecraft at comet 67P. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM/ATG medialab The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission will end Sept. 30 with a dicey descent to the core of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a risky, but potentially rewarding finale punctuated by commands to automatically safe the probe’s rocket thrusters and turn off its radio transmitter. The…

  • For comet scientists, elation and redemption at Philae’s wakeup

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    Artist’s concept of Philae. Credit: ESA Research teams across Europe spent the last half-year meticulously going through a wish list of experiments for the Philae comet lander without knowing whether they would ever get a chance to execute the tasks. With Philae now awake after a seven-month slumber, scientists are eager to turn on the…

  • Engineers seek to stabilize radio link with comet lander

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    Rosetta’s navigation camera captured this view of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko awakened by the sun June 5. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam Emboldened by renewed contact with Europe’s comet lander, engineers are repositioning the mission’s Rosetta mothership this week to establish a reliable a communications link with the dishwasher-sized Philae landing craft, a prerequisite for resuming a science campaign abbreviated…

  • Comet lander wakes up!

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    STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of the Philae lander. Credit: DLR The European Space Agency’s Philae comet lander, out of power and presumably lost after bouncing into heavily shadowed terrain last November, phoned home Saturday after finally getting enough sunlight on its solar panels to transmit data to the Rosetta orbiter…

  • Rosetta begins listening for signs of life from comet lander

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    Artist’s concept of the Philae comet lander. Credit: DLR Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is trying to contact the Philae landing probe for the first time since the robot fell silent after a bouncy landing on a comet in November. Although there are slim odds of hearing from Philae in the first communications window this month, scientists…