{"id":16840,"date":"2014-11-12T18:52:36","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T10:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/comet-lander-leaves-mothership-returns-farewell-images\/"},"modified":"2014-11-12T18:52:36","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T10:52:36","slug":"comet-lander-leaves-mothership-returns-farewell-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/comet-lander-leaves-mothership-returns-farewell-images\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet lander leaves mothership, returns farewell images"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Europe's
Europe\u2019s Philae lander \u2014 with its landing gear and instrument booms extended \u2014 is seen by Rosetta.
Credit: ESA\/Rosetta\/MPS for OSIRIS team MPS\/UPD\/LAM\/IAA\/SSO\/INTA\/UPM\/DASP\/IDA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DARMSTADT, Germany \u2014 Europe\u2019s comet-bound Philae probe released from its Rosetta orbiter mothership Wednesday, and the two spacecraft snapped farewell photos as they went separate ways for the first time after a ten-year journey from Earth to comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.<\/p>\n

The imagery showed each spacecraft backdropped by the velvety void of space.<\/p>\n

The images were taken minutes after ground controllers confirmed the oven-sized spacecraft flew away from Rosetta at 0903 GMT (10:03 a.m. EST) flew away from Rosetta to make the first landing attempt on a comet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took an image 60 seconds after release, and it worked perfectly well,\u201d said Jean-Pierre Bibring, Philae\u2019s lead scientist and principal investigator for the lander\u2019s CIVA infrared and visible camera suite.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t see the orbiter any more,\u201d Bibring said. \u201cWe said bye-bye to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Philae's
Philae\u2019s farewell image of Rosetta shows the mothership\u2019s main body and one of the probe\u2019s power-generating solar panels. Credit: ESA\/Philae\/CIVA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The imaging system is made of seven micro-cameras and was developed by the Institut d\u2019Astrophysique Spatiale in Paris.<\/p>\n

Once Philae lands on the comet, the probe\u2019s cameras will take a series of photos for a panorama and 3D stereoscopic imagery.<\/p>\n

Rosetta\u2019s main camera system, led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, also took images of Philae soon after its deployment.<\/p>\n

A zoomed-in photo from Rosetta\u2019s OSIRIS camera showed the lander\u2019s three legs, camera and instrument booms extended as planned.<\/p>\n

Confirmation of Philae\u2019s touchdown is expected around 1600 GMT (11 a.m. EST) Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Europe\u2019s Philae lander \u2014 with its landing gear and instrument booms extended \u2014 is seen by Rosetta.Credit: ESA\/Rosetta\/MPS for OSIRIS team MPS\/UPD\/LAM\/IAA\/SSO\/INTA\/UPM\/DASP\/IDA DARMSTADT, Germany \u2014 Europe\u2019s comet-bound Philae probe released from its Rosetta orbiter mothership Wednesday, and the two spacecraft snapped farewell photos as they went separate ways for the first time after a ten-year journey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3573,3609,3373],"class_list":["post-16840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-comet-landing","tag-philae","tag-rosetta"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}