Rosetta & Comet 67P now at 80 Days before Perihelion — Activity Rising
ESA’s Rosetta space probe in orbit around Comet 67P (Churyumov-Gerasimenko) is now just 80 days out from Solar closest approach.
As each day passes, the Rosetta’s comet is heating up and becoming more active but perihelion is like its Summer Solstice, like our June 21st. Its dog days of summer will be thereafter. And already Rosetta is challenged by the increasing activity of the comet, balancing scientific observations with its survival.
Rosetta is one of a trio of space probes that are the marquee missions of summer 2015. Each are on marathon decade long missions to small bodies of our Solar System.
Dawn at Ceres is delivering ever more detailed images of Ceres. New Horizons will arrive at its ultimate objective — the flyby of Pluto and Charon and Rosetta and possibly an awakened Philae, its lander, will watch the rising activity of comet 67P.
The milestones are plenty for Rosetta. The first probe to orbit a comet. The first to soft land a probe on a comet’s surface. A probe with a full complement of scientific instruments to sniff, at the source, the surface and probe the interior of a comet.
The discoveries are changing how we understand the development of our Solar System — a star with eight planets, at least, and millions of smaller bodies. Discovies from Rosetta are revealing that probably it wasn’t comets but rather the asteroids that delivered water to the surface of the Earth.
Whether delivery by asteroids or comets has been a fairly divided debate, but supporters of Rosetta delivered a 6 minute short film, Ambition[link], that described comets as the deliverers of water to Earth. It seems pretty clear that that short film could use a revision, a redux. Nonetheless, ESA Rosetta public outreach definitely raised the bar and NASA has seemed to take up the challenge. Besides the short film, there has been the series of animations to appeal to children and the child within us all. [link to the whole series on youtube!]
So what is in store for Rosetta and even Philae over the next 80 days? First and utmost is survival. The comet is spewing particles and gases prodigiously. Already, a close pass of Rosetta by the comet, at 60 kilometers, resulted in a cloud of particles blocking the vehicles guidance system causing temporary failure and forcing the craft into a safe-mode.
Rosetta will have to remain backed off and incrementally further away as the comet’s activity rises. But with the vehicle secure, the vehicle will measure the total output of gas and particles, how they continue to interact with the Solar Wind and observe how the surface is effected by all the outgassing. How is it the features we see now evolve with time? Did it cause the loss of material that created the rubber duckie’s neck? Will we clearly see the evolution of the cratered terrain? Will there be unexpected landslides and how violent can this rather timid comet become?
Other recent stories by T.Reyes:
NASA selects the Instruments for the first dedicated mission to Explore the Water World Europa
New Horizons’ success at Pluto: Its all about Ralph and Alice! “Someday Alice!” … that day is less than 2 months away — the flyby of Pluto and Pluto’s moon Charon
The Singularity can explain why we seem alone in the Universe
The Prelude to the Singularity — our relation with past & present technology foreshadows what could become of us with emergence of artificial super-intelligence
Will We First Find Simple or Intelligent Life beyond the Earth?
