Surprised there isn't a thread about this already...
Sources:
After 10 long years on Rosetta's back and a 7-hour fall toward its target, the Philae lander anchored itself to the surface of a comet. Just after 11AM ET, the European Space Agency's Philae lander made contact with the surface of a comet. The 250-pound probe settled on a patch of the 2.5-mile-long comet and sent a signal home, ESA said.
Philae left Earth a decade ago, hitching a ride on ESA's Rosetta orbiter. About seven hours ago, Rosetta released the washing-machine-sized probe, and it began to fall toward its target, a comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Though the landing site was selected to ensure minimal debris, it was possible that Philae wouldn't stick the landing — especially after the head Rosetta lander, Stephan Ulamac, said yesterday that Philae's thrusters, meant to stabilize the craft as it landed, might not work.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/12/7...aft-on-a-comet
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/scien...nment-29985988
Results 1 to 10 of 16
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12-11-2014, 10:10 PM #1
Humanity just landed a spacecraft on a comet
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Yeah saw it on TV a few hours ago and just watched the report on bbc again. God bless that woman who'd been working on it for 25 years and started crying with joy, truly astonishing moment.
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12-11-2014, 10:13 PM #3
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Very good but i'm glad nothing from it is being brought back from space to Earth.
Dangerous if you ask me, best to analyse it there and then.Last edited by -:Undertaker:-; 12-11-2014 at 10:14 PM.
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12-11-2014, 10:16 PM #4
European Space Agency has landed the Rosetta spacecraft on a comet!
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2...-landing-cometThe signal broke a seven-hour wait of agonising intensity and sparked scenes of jubilation at the European Space Agency’s mission control in Darmstadt. The team in charge of the Rosetta mission achieved what at times seemed an impossible task by landing a robotic spacecraft on a comet for the first time in history.
The moment the tension broke came shortly after 1600 GMT when the Philae called home. “We are there. We are sitting on the surface. Philae is talking to us,” said a jubilant Stephan Ulamec, Philae lander manager at the DLR German space centre. “We are on the comet.”
Andrea Accomazzo, the Rosetta flight operations director, added: “We cannot be happier than we are now.”
But celebrations were tempered by the later discovery that the probe’s two harpoons had not fired to fasten the craft down in the ultra-low gravity. Scientists now think the probe may have bounced after first coming into contact with the surface. Ulamec said: “Maybe today we didn’t just land once, we landed twice.”
The safe, if precarious, touchdown of the lander gives scientists a unique chance to ride onboard a comet and study from the surface what happens as its activity ramps up as it gets closer to the sun. The first images beamed back from the lander’s descent revealed a dramatic landscape of pits and precipices, craters and boulders. However, there have been gaps in its radio link with the orbiting Rosetta mothership.
Surprised nobody else posted this yet. Absolutely amazing. Fantastic to see this come out of Europe as well rather than NASA. Just goes to show what we can achieve through cooperation.
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@xxMATTGxx; merge my post into your thread please
Last edited by The Don; 12-11-2014 at 10:17 PM.
That's when Ron vanished, came back speaking Spanish
Lavish habits, two rings, twenty carats
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12-11-2014, 10:18 PM #5
Damnit matt, happened hours ago and you beat me to posting it by a few minutes!!!
Originally Posted by xxMATTGxx
Absolutely amazing news anyway.That's when Ron vanished, came back speaking Spanish
Lavish habits, two rings, twenty carats
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12-11-2014, 10:24 PM #6
Haha, merged them for you Originally Posted by The Don
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13-11-2014, 06:48 PM #7
Thanks! Originally Posted by xxMATTGxx
Haha, merged them for you
I'm surprised @Chippiewill; didn't make a thread on this
That's when Ron vanished, came back speaking Spanish
Lavish habits, two rings, twenty carats
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This is absolutely fantastic news and a great step for humanity. It can only lead to new discoveries, possibilities and hopes!
I'll be keeping up to date with this
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Its weird to think I'd just probably been born when they started the planning stages of this. Glad it's stable now
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14-11-2014, 12:41 AM #10
Apparently it bounced, landed, bounced, landed, and then fell on its side so... yup. Bit of a problem that.
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