LONDON: A European spacecraft is on course for the first, historic landing on a comet. Scientists have now released the first pictures from the lander after separating from its “mothership”, Rosetta.
The little lander, which was carried from Earth to 67P by the Rosetta satellite before being launched in an attempt to land on the surface of the 4 kilometer wide comet in November, bounced not once but twice when it came time to touch down on the icy interstellar rock. The images, captured by the CIVA camera system onboard the lander, are suitably blurred considering how Philae wasn’t exactly stable or unmoving at the time.
The image was a shocking one to researchers keeping an eye on the lander’s progress, as it demonstrated at the time of its landing attempt that the probe was anything but stationary according to Jean-Pierre Birbing, co-principal investigator for the ESA mission. The situation was completely tense at the time, Birbing recounted, as there was no way to know if Philae had reached escape velocity when it was ejected from the surface of the comet, making it unclear if the lander would settle back down to the surface of 67P or if it was lost in space completely.
Eventually, Philae of course did come to a stop safely, and the images sent back by its CIVA system showcased that. However, the new landing site was not only about 1 kilometer from its original planned site but it was in the dark shadow of a cliff; this was bad news for the onboard batteries of the lander, which necessitated being charged up via Philae’s solar panels. This cut the lifetime sort on the lander’s activities, though Philae was able to complete its initial round of analysis and beam the results back home for further study before finally powering down.
However, hopes remain high that when Comet 67P turns closer to the sun, the amount of solar radiation hitting Philae may change for the better. This could bring Philae back from the dead to continue its study of the comet for a few more crucial hours.
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