With an eye toward a possible return mission years in the future, Cornell astronomers have shown how smooth terrains—a good place to land a spacecraft and to scoop up samples—evolve on the icy world of comets.
Astronomy
Sep 1, 2022
0
40
After years of detective work, scientists working on the European Space Agency (ESA) Rosetta mission have now been able to locate where the Philae lander made its second and penultimate contact with the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ...
Space Exploration
Oct 29, 2020
2
291
On 12 November 2014 Philae became the first spacecraft to land on a comet as part of the successful Rosetta mission to study Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Five years later, and after the mission's official end in 2016, ...
Space Exploration
Nov 12, 2019
1
9
Between 2014 and 2016, the scientific camera system OSIRIS onboard ESA's Rosetta spacecraft captured almost 70000 images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. They not only document the most extensive and demanding comet mission ...
Space Exploration
Apr 18, 2019
0
11
Feeling stressed? You're not alone. ESA's Rosetta mission has revealed that geological stress arising from the shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has been a key process in sculpting the comet's surface and interior ...
Space Exploration
Feb 19, 2019
1
85
The ghostly green glow at the very top of this image reveals the presence of 46P Wirtanen – a relatively small comet with an estimated diameter of 1.2 kilometers. Had the path of history taken a different course, we would ...
Space Exploration
Jan 18, 2019
0
19
A special visitor is crossing the sky: Comet 46P/Wirtanen, sighted with telescopes and binoculars in recent weeks, is on the way to its closest approach to Earth this weekend, when it might become visible to the naked eye.
Space Exploration
Dec 16, 2018
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22
Perhaps you live in a part of the world where you regularly experience snow storms or even dust storms. But for many of us, the weather forms a natural part of everyday conversation – more so when it is somewhat extreme, ...
Space Exploration
Jan 22, 2018
0
9
The dust that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko emits into space consists to about one half of organic molecules. The dust belongs to the most pristine and carbon-rich material known in our solar system and has hardly changed ...
Space Exploration
Dec 1, 2017
78
153
Launched March 2004 and following a 10-year journey across the solar system, the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe made history in 2014. It became the first spacecraft to orbit the nucleus of a comet—a frozen remnant ...
Analytical Chemistry
Nov 1, 2017
0
2
