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Title: Rosetta's Comet - Update Written by: ehd123 on Jan 6, 2015 (https://biology-forums.com/gallery/47/4_06_01_15_6_49_03.jpeg) (https://biology-forums.com/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=19958) Remember Philae? That little lander that was targeting comet Rosetta? https://biology-forums.com/index.php?article=1050 It was very big news around two months ago... Sadly, Philae landed incorrectly in a rather awkward position due to technical failings. After all, it was trying to land on the harsh, unstable, deteriorating/burning up surface of a comet. It bounced three times to a site away from the targeted position and ended up in a shady place with insufficient sunlight to recharge its energy reserves. And so it died out after 60 hours of touchdown. Recent tabloids have now reported that Philae is missing! Scientists from the European Space Agency have tried to analyze the images that Philae returned but things just keep on getting more and more ambiguous. A spacecraft returning images of the comet surface have failed in locating the probe that journeyed a decade to reach the comet. Nevertheless, Philae has gone long and far away from home and has provided some pretty exciting discoveries in its rather short-lived lifespan. In addition to providing us with the sounds of the comet singing, this lander has provided much more interesting data. For example, it has revealed that 20 cm of soft dust was on the surface of the comet. Most remarkably so far, the data Philae collected detected organic molecules on the comet. Since comets have been hypothesized to be the givers of life components of mother Earth, this finding was pretty impressive. Carbon has been the only element released until now, no others yet. However, even if further investigations were not able to add to the role of comets in the evolution of life, Philae remains an incredible leap forward for mankind and space exploration. |