Sorry if youve all been bombarded with news on this one, but its really something that Rosetta was able to catch up to and rendezvous with a comet. Im especially excited about the Philae landers attempts at a landing. Because the comets gravity is so minimal, the lander has to harpoon the surface in order to stay put, otherwise a slight puff of outgassing could blast it permanently into space. Rosetta and Philae are set to follow on the surface and in orbit through the comets close pass to the sun (which is actually further away than Earth is). Heres a fun fact for you, though. A few years back NASA identified a Near Earth Object that was on a collision course with Earth. It wasnt very big, but it was totally unexpected. Turns out on closer inspection it was Rosetta on one of its Earth gravity assists.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:59:56 +0000
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