Tag: Philae


  • Rosetta and Philae

    Science magazine writes about Rosetta, and the probe Philae, and the adventures it endures, as well as the future of them both. It’s an interesting piece.

    This tidbit stands out though, regarding how water could’ve come to Earth.

    And ROSINA, a Rosetta instrument that uses spectrometers to measure gas abundances, has obtained a highly sought after result: the so-called deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio of water in the comet’s thin atmosphere, or coma. The measured value for 67P is much higher than the ratio in Earth’s oceans and higher than in other comets, says ROSINA principal investigator Kathrin Altwegg, of the University of Bern. Three years ago, the comet Hartley–2 was found to have a D-to-H ratio near that of Earth’s oceans—sparking interest in the notion that comet impacts delivered much of Earth’s water. Altwegg says the result for 67P could make asteroids the primary suspect again.


  • Probing a comet

    Right now, a probe is trying to land on a comet.

    The harrowing landing has been a decade in the making. The Rosetta orbiter launched in 2004, and orbited earth three times to pick up the speed required to let it catch 67P. At its furthest point from the sun, Rosetta got only 3 percent of the sunlight we receive on earth — a problem for its solar panels, which is how it generates its electricity. So it was designed to go into a kind of hibernation, with only the most vital functions running. In January, Rosetta woke up and in August, it caught 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

    This is so cool, fingers crossed it succeeds. Follow the probe on Twitter for more, and keep an eye on Sploid’s liveblog.