Rosetta Probe

[anonymous-user]

What a great shot! Thanks for posting.

[CrutyRammers]

aye, good stuff.

[Eric Mc]

Looks like it's getting interesting there. I wonder what will happen to the lander with all that going on.

[hidetheelephants]

It looks dramatic, but unless there are eruptions underneath it I'd have thought the offgassing would have little effect beyond the odd bit of settlement; naively I liken Philae to a snowman's hat, the snowman slowly melts and the hat ends up on the ground.

[Eric Mc]

We'll have to wait and see. The great thing is that we've got a spacecraft on the spot observing in close up, for the first time ever, how a comet behaves as it gets closer to the sun. I reckon it will get quite dramatic.

[SpudLink]

hidetheelephants said:

It looks dramatic, but unless there are eruptions underneath it I'd have thought the offgassing would have little effect beyond the odd bit of settlement; naively I liken Philae to a snowman's hat, the snowman slowly melts and the hat ends up on the ground.

In the micro-gravity environment, I assume it wouldn't take much of an 'eruption' to move the lander from its current position. (I'm trying to avoid using the phrase 'gaseous emission'. )

[MrCarPark]

I think the Rosetta team mentioned that the momentum from any jets would not be enough to disturb the lander.

We shall see if their assumptions are correct in due course

[scubadude]

scubadude said:

BTW- Was look at some of the pictures posted yesterday- anyone else notice there is a obvious crack across the neck of the duck?

See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-3093...

Nice to note I wasn't the only person to notice the huge crack... it'll be quiet a sight if Rosetta is there when the head falls off!!!

[Russ35]

Between 12th and 20th March Rosetta is going to start transmitting to see if it can receive a signal from Philae.

Philae should currently be receiving twice as much solar energy as it did when it landed in November.

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/03/10/waiting-fo...

[durbster]

A lot of caution in that article though so best not to get hopes up yet.

Without knowing the precise landing spot I wonder how they can calculate the broadcast times. Philae might have moved or been fired off into space by a gas vent for all we know.

If we ever do hear from it again I think I might have a little weep

[jbudgie]

Russ35 said:

Between 12th and 20th March Rosetta is going to start transmitting to see if it can receive a signal from Philae.

Philae should currently be receiving twice as much solar energy as it did when it landed in November.

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/03/10/waiting-fo...

Fingers crossed.

[SpudLink]

This morning on the Radio 4's "The Life Scientific" they had a profile/interview of Matt Taylor, the project director of the mission. Not much science, but still worth a listen.
It will be on the iPlayer.

[MrCarPark]

Another awesome image. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150520.html

[scubadude]

MrCarPark said:

Another awesome image. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150520.html

That really is a superb image- instantly made me think of some 80's Sci-Fi alien ship looming into view :-)

I'm unsure as to what questions Rosetta has answered but it has certainly posed some good questions... like why and how is there a 5km long rock duck orbiting the sun :-)

It only seems to be livening up slowly, not the wild show speculated at yet.

[durbster]

Amazing photo. Presumably that's from the close fly-past they did a few weeks ago. Rosetta retreated back to a safer distance afterwards.

[Eric Mc]

That is truly spectacular. It reminded me of the types of artwork that used to adorn science fiction paperbacks in the 1970s.

[Zad]

I agree Eric, somewhere at my parents I have books of artwork by Steven Caldwell etc that look very similar to that! Just spent an hour or so browsing the work of the chap who painted the Sinclair computer manual covers: http://www.alisoneldred.com/artistJohnHarris.html

[perdu]

The foreground looks like a heather and bracken covered slope

I hope that doesn't start the conspiracy loonies off about Rosetta and Philae

(I hasten to add that I am not one of them)

The looming rock does look like the cover art on some of those sci fi books, I have a copy of 'Five To Midnight' by Edmund Cooper that has a beached space leviathan in almost the same posture

Plus a leggy bird in a strange helmet

[Eric Mc]

I knew there was something missing.

[Halmyre]

perdu said:

The foreground looks like a heather and bracken covered slope

I hope that doesn't start the conspiracy loonies off about Rosetta and Philae

(I hasten to add that I am not one of them)

The looming rock does look like the cover art on some of those sci fi books, I have a copy of 'Five To Midnight' by Edmund Cooper that has a beached space leviathan in almost the same posture

Plus a leggy bird in a strange helmet

I love the way the cover art (usually by Chris Foss) on books from that period rarely reflected the contents of the book. Case in point:



There's no such scene in the book, nor in any of Ballard's books or stories, come to that.