On the eve of Philae’s landing, the European Space Agency has released its top ten images of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko taken by Rosetta’s navigation camera from its lowest orbit just 10 kilometres from the centre of the nucleus.
ESA flight director Andrea Accomazzo, says the Philae lander is ready to separate from the Rosetta mothership and touchdown on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
This week marks the pinnacle of the professional careers of many scientists, when the European Space Agency plans to put down a three-legged robotic lander on a comet, a risky first-of-a-kind endeavor that could rewrite textbooks on the history of the solar system.
Images of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from Rosetta’s navigation camera have taken on a darker, more “atmospheric” tone in recent days and the latest view is no exception.
With just over a week to go before touchdown, the landing site for Rosetta’s Philae probe has been named Agilkia, after an island on the Nile River in southern Egypt.
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe has shifted into a higher orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in readiness for the release of its Philae lander on 12 November.
If it were possible to breath in space, one would smell a pungent aroma of rotten eggs, ammonia, vinegary sulphur dioxide and toxic hydrogen cyanide coming from comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, according to sensors on the Rosetta mission.
The European Space Agency’s first foray into science fiction, in the form of a short film entitled Ambition that promotes the Rosetta mission, may herald a new way in which science outreach can be conducted.