16 years after Bruce Willis and company managed to land on the comet in the movie Armageddon, the European Space Agency (ESA) succeeded in a similar way with the Philea module, which needed the stunt skills of the boys from the Fast and the Furious movies - the comet is traveling 65 thousand km /h. Philae, which after a decade flew out of its nest, the Rosetta craft, put its athletic skills to good use on November 12 shortly after 5 p.m. and hitched a ride on comet 67P/Churyumov – Gerasimenko.
It is a historical achievement that will go down in the history books in capital letters landing on the moon and the flight of Yuri Gagarin. After Russia (April 12, 1961) and the USA (July 20, 1969), Europe also got its "space" breakthrough date - November 12, 2014.
After the Philae lander cut the umbilical cord with the Rosetta probe and landed softly after seven hours (or rather twice), his work or the mission is really just beginning.
Because it is gravity on the comet weak and because they did not trigger harpoons, which would be attached to the comet (now it is held by "claws" on the landing legs, i.e. screws), is the future of the laboratory on rather shaky legs, but at the moment the little activity of this cocktail of rocks, frozen water and dust and the rickety the winds, so that he could start scientific operations, which should be explained to us in even more detail the creation of planet earth.
Therefore, even though she is "riding" him without a saddle, it is to be expected that she will not fall off the "horse" quickly, a problem can arise when she activates it the heat of the sun, where it is destined and will begin to grow characteristic of it tail. Otherwise, it will be on the way there and around half a billion kilometers from home, Earth, accompanied throughout by Rosetta.
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ESA, a pioneer in the field of comets, it is with a little help OURSELVES successfully completed the ten-year 1.3 billion worth and more than six billion long the pursuit of the comet after solar system, which she caught in August of this year, settled into his orbit and parked on it. Otherwise this one 4 x 3.5 km the large archeological remains of the primrose was not her first target, but technical problems interfered with the selection and the originally intended one fell out of the game 46P/Wirtanen.
More information:
rosetta.esa.int
