Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Humanity just landed a spacecraft on a comet


Just after 11AM Eastern, the European Space Agency's Philae lander made contact with the surface of a comet. The 250-pound probe settled on a patch of the 2.5-mile-long comet and sent a signal home, ESA said.



Philae left Earth a decade ago, hitching a ride on ESA's Rosetta orbiter. About 7 hours asgo, Rosetta released the washing-machine-sized probe, and it began to fall toward its target, a comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Though the landing site was picked to be clear of debris, it was possible that Philae wouldn't stick the landing — especially after the head Rosetta lander, Stephan Ulmac, said yesterday that Philae's...


Continue reading…






via The Verge - All Posts http://ift.tt/1zjReNI

No comments:

Post a Comment