Tag: Comets
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Rosetta mission ends with comet touchdown
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…
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Live coverage: Rosetta’s final hours
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.
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‘Farewell, Rosetta’: Europe’s mission to a comet ends with a bittersweet bang
The Rosetta probe inspired a series of kid-friendly cartoons. (Credit: ESA) The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe today descended to a mission-ending impact on the comet that it followed for more than two years. The car-sized probe continued to transmit data as it dove toward the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 446 million miles from Earth. When the…
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Rosetta spacecraft heads for comet crash landing
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…
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Video: Rosetta scientist Matt Taylor on the end of mission
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.
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Philae found at last! Rosetta probe spots lost lander stuck in a comet’s crack
An extreme close-up of the Philae lander shows components of the 3-foot-wide spacecraft from a distance of 1.7 miles. (Credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA) After almost two years’ of searching, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta…
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Lost Philae lander found on comet
Rosetta’s lander Philae has been identified in OSIRIS narrow-angle camera images taken on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers). The image scale is about 2 inches (5 centimeters) per pixel. Philae’s 3-foot-wide (1-meter) body and two of its three legs can be seen extended from the body. The images also…
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Pow! Rosetta probe spots comet eruption
The OSIRIS wide-angle camera on the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe captured this view of an outburst from the Atum region on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Feb. 19. (Credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team, MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA) The scientists…
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Scientists to land, and switch off, Rosetta comet probe in September
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…
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Dizzying final few months planned for Rosetta comet probe
Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera took this image of comet 67P on Jan. 23 at a distance of 75 kilometers (46 miles). Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA Entering the final months of a 12-year mission, Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft is again moving closer to the oddball comet that has engaged scientists since it arrived in 2014, heading…