Landing On A Comet

Source: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Since I wrote to you about the Rosetta space mission a few things have happened that I wanted to tell you about. When I first mentioned the comet to you in August, the spacecraft was about 100km away from comet 67/P - the same distance from Luton to Coventry - but now, a few weeks later, it is only 10km away. It is exactly on schedule as was planned when it blasted off from Earth ten and a half years ago.

In less than 3 weeks the small robot landing craft, called Philae, will set off from the main Rosetta spaceship and land on the surface of the comet - the first time that the human race has ever attempted to do this. We have only just properly seen the comet after Rosetta got close enough to start taking good photos of it and so up until now the people at the European Space Agency (ESA) who are running the mission weren’t sure where the lander was going to touch down. For the past few weeks they have been looking at the surface of the comet to try to find a place that is both a good spot to land safely but also interesting enough to bother going there at all and now they have, a place called site J.

You will remember that comet 67/P is a funny shape - a bit like a rubber duck. Site J is on the ‘head’ of the two lumps of the comet. If Site J doesn’t work out during the landing then ESA have a back up landing site called Site C on the other lump, the ‘body’ of the rubber duck. The photo at the top of the blog shows where site J is on the comet and the photo below this paragraph shows a close up of it taken when Rosetta was 30km away from it a few days ago. Click on it to make it nice and big.

Source: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Of course Site J is a bit of a dull name for a place that is going to make history and so ESA have started a competition for people to give the place a better and more interesting name. Want to have a go? Then follow this link and send them your suggestion.  You have a few more days before the competition closes on 22nd October.

By the way, as you know, I normally try to create the photos and drawings I use on my blog posts myself. When I’m talking about a comet deep in space that is of course very hard to do but instead I’ve used photos that ESA have been taking using the cameras on Rosetta and then putting on their website, www.esa.int. I’ve used the full sized images they have published so make sure you click on all of them to see them in greater detail. Remember, these are not works of art or imaginary drawings made up by special effects people, they are photos of a real space object that has come from far outside our solar system. If you have a moment go and have a look at more fantastic photos on their website. Here is a photo Rosetta took of itself, with the comet in the background, a few days ago:

Source: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Philae will land on the comet on 12th November. I’ll try to remember to give you another news report around then.

If you would like to listen to this blog post instead (apologies for the sore throat, by the way) then press play on the audioboom widget below:

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