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Tag: comet chaser

  • ESA Euronews – Rosetta: The Comet Hunter Awakes

    ESA Euronews – Rosetta: The Comet Hunter Awakes

    The exploits of comet-hunting spacecraft Rosetta are generating intense interest as it speeds towards a dramatic climax this autumn.

    The craft will catch up with comet 67p/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, fly alongside, and put a lander on its surface. Throughout this fantastic voyage, Euronews will have special access to the engineers and scientists who are making it happen.

    On 20th January Rosetta woke up from two and a half years of hibernation. It was a moment of extreme tension for everyone at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Strained, nervous faces searched for a signal from a probe in deep space.

    After some 45 minutes of anxiety the all-important first signal came through. The scientists burst into energetic applause.

  • ESA Euronews: Rosetta prepara su cita con el cometa

    ESA Euronews: Rosetta prepara su cita con el cometa

    Hace unos días, la sonda Rosetta se reactivó tras casi dos años y medio de hibernación. La comunidad científica del mundo entero estaba pendiente de la sala de control en el momento en el que Rosetta, tras reactivarse, enviaba su señal de confirmación.

    A ocho cientos millones de kilómetros, en algún lugar del espacio, Rosetta se despertaba.

    Este proceso tardó varias horas, a las 18:18 de la tarde, hora central europea, el equipo del Centro de Operaciones de la Agencia Espacial Europea, en Darmstadt, Alemania, estallaba de alegría.

  • ESA Euronews: Rosetta lassú ébredése

    ESA Euronews: Rosetta lassú ébredése

    Pár nappal ezelőtt az Európai Űrügynökség sikeresen felébresztette a hibernációból a Rosetta nevű műholdat, amely hamarosan egyedülálló küldetésre indul: leszállóegységet próbál ereszteni egy üstökös felszínére.

    2014. január huszadikán a világ szeme az Európai Űrügynökség csapatára szegeződött, amint arra vártak, hogy az űreszköz válaszoljon.

  • Chasing comets in space

    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.

  • Rosetta — the story so far

    Rosetta — the story so far

    This short movie tells the story of Rosetta’s journey through the Solar System so far, through the voices of some of the many people involved in this exciting mission. ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft launched in March 2004 and has since been chasing down comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where it will become the first space mission to orbit a comet, the first to attempt a landing on a comet’s surface, and the first to follow a comet as it swings around the Sun. In the last ten years Rosetta has made 3 flybys of Earth and 1 of Mars, and passed by and imaged asteroids Steins and Lutetia. Operating on solar energy alone, in June 2011 Rosetta was placed into deep space hibernation as it cruised nearly 800 million kilometres from the warmth of the Sun, close to the orbit of Jupiter. On 20 January, Rosetta will wake up at 673 million kilometres from the Sun and about 9 million km from the comet, ready for the next leg of its epic adventure.

    Credits: ESA