“Earth science is a subject far too big for one country, one agency, to tackle all by itself.” So #NASAExplorers team up with researchers from around the country and the planet to answer some big questions about fires, clouds and climate from the Western Pacific, where we still have a lot to learn about the interaction between fires and cloud formation. #S3E4
Tag: chasing
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Chasing comets in space
Space missions have been chasing comets since the launch of the Giotto spacecraft in 1985. NASA’s Stardust mission flew through a comet’s tail in 2006 and brought a sample of dust back to Earth. Glycene was found in this sample, one of the four basic amino acids in our DNA. We can make a fake comet on Earth using a recipe of water ice, liquid nitrogen and fine carbon particles. By testing the fake comet and simulating the conditions of space, this will help scientists interpret data from ESA’s latest comet chaser – Rosetta. With ESA’s comet chaser Rosetta expectations are great : for the first time a probe will be flying alongside a comet and even placing a lander on its surface.
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Chasing a comet
Rosetta’s journey from launch in March 2004 to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August 2014, including 3 flybys of Earth and 1 of Mars. By January 2014 Rosetta is about 9 million kilometres from comet 67P/CG. By early May, Rosetta will be 2 million kilometres from the comet and at the end of May the spacecraft will execute a major rendezvous manoeuvre to line it up for orbit insertion at the start of August.
The comet and planets are not to scale.Credits: ESA — C. Carreau