European Space Agency Archives

Rosetta Is Trying to Reach Estranged Philae

January 11, 2016 By Doyle Buehler Leave a Comment

Rosetta has until the end of January to try and bring Philae home.

Last year the Space Agency from Europe (ESA) successfully managed to land a spacecraft on the surface of a planet. Now, Rosetta is trying to reach estranged Philae, the comet lander that is currently on the surface of the comet designated as 67P.

Because the last time when Philae was active was last July, scientists at the ESA are growing nervous. As time passes by and no contact is made, chances that the piece of technology will be forever lost greatly increase.

An operations manager, Cinzia Fantinati, from the Philae control team at the Center of German Aerospace, says that there is a slight possibility that the comet lander could be brought back home. This could be accomplished if the Rosetta spacecraft manages to reach the landing craft.

In order for Rosetta to establish contact with estranged Philae, the landing craft must first be cleansed of the dust that has accumulated on it since its landing on the 67P comet. This operation will prove to be a bit tricky since a couple of systems are faulty on the Philae, and others are plain unresponsive.

The experts from the Center of German Aerospace think that they can clean Philae’s solar panels by powering up the momentum wheel and sending a spin command to it. This would do the trick in cleaning the large amounts of space dust. The wheel in question was used as a stabilizer at the moment of the craft’s descent on the 67P comet.

When the landing craft will be clean, the solar panels would be able to align themselves and take advantage of the Sun’s position. This is a mission with a limited time-frame, though since the researchers have predicted that the comet will only remain in a charging distance from the sun until the end of this January. If the Philae is not recovered until then, it will be lost forever.

At the moment, the temperature is high enough for the craft to take flight, but if the comet distances itself more from the Sun, the cold will affect the equipment irreparably. Hopes lie in the fact that Philae is only to dusty to be able to charge himself and send additional data. Stephan Ulamec, one of the members of the team which monitors the craft, hopes that it is not tilted, thus impossible to be recovered.

A representative from the French Space Agency, Philippe Gaudon, says the landing craft is already lost and any other attempt made by the team is futile.

The mission Rosetta is trying to reach estranged Philae one last time this January. After that, the spacecraft, which is predicted to function until September, will be brought home.

Image sorce: www.wikimedia.org

Rosetta probe denies presence of magnetic field at comet 67P

April 14, 2015 By Stephen Kenwright Leave a Comment

The scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA), who are behind the comet-chasing mission Rosetta, on Tuesday announced that the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has no magnetic field.

The new findings could offer key insight into the formation of heavenly bodies like planets and comets in the early development stages.

Last November, the Rosetta’s Philae Lander probe gathered data from its multiple landings and discovered that the comet’s surface is not magnetized.

Detailing the new findings of the Rosetta probe, study lead author Hans-Ulrich Alster said, “If the surface was magnetized, we would have expected to see a clear increase in the magnetic field readings as we got closer and closer to the surface. But this was not the case at any of the locations we visited, so we conclude that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a remarkably nonmagnetic object.”

The landing of the probe was not at all smooth. It took four attempts and experienced a grazing collision along the way. The scientists said that it is likely the complexity of the landing that made them believe that the comet lacks a magnetized core.

Several ascents and descents permitted the team to carry out the comparison of the measurements to and from the various points of contact along the surface of the comet.

The Philae Lander, which is similar in size of a washing machine and weighs nearly 220 pounds, had sufficient stored battery life permitting 60 hours of experiments. It sent back the results on the Earth on November 15. The scientists believe the finding could assist in clarifying how bodies like planets and comets are formed in the early stages since it might help in ruling out magnetic forces.

Matthew Taylor, Rosetta project scientist at the European Space Agency, said, “It’s a massively important finding and a key thing we wanted to measure. That Churyumov-Gerasimenko does not have a magnetic field could help us solve the puzzle of how planetary building blocks evolved from the proto-planetary disk. It appears we will have to switch off the effect of magnetism in simulations of the beginning.”

The Philae lander is presently in the hibernation mode for the purpose of preserving of its battery. But it could reboot by the May-end. This intends to say that communication could be established likely by the end of June and the battery charging starting again in July.

The findings were reported by the European Space Agency in the journal Science and further presented at the European Geosciences Union in Vienna.

Likely precursors of today’s galaxy clusters discovered

April 2, 2015 By Stephanie James Leave a Comment

The scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have discovered a treasure chest of sorts forming clusters of ancient galaxy that could reveal more about the evolution of universe.

The findings were made using two of the space telescopes belonging to ESA.

According to the scientists, the study showed how astronomers made use of the ESA’s Planck space observatory in order to detect these distant galaxy clusters that could possibly be the precursors to the universe. After their detection, all the data was transferred to the Herschel telescope for the scientists to have a more in-depth look.

Hervé Dole, lead study author from the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale in France, called it a huge surprise to find out several dusty galaxies and intense star forming that could be a crucial missing piece in the formation of stellar structure.

The treasure trove of the clusters of baby galaxy was detected by Planck, but it was Herschel’s data that made the astronomers to closely analyse the composition of each of these galaxy clusters that exposed its origins.

This step is crucial in elaborate understanding of the early commencement of the universe. According to the experts, millions of years were taken for stars and galaxies to acquire the energy for assembling into giant clusters.

With the formation of these galaxy clusters, powerful gravitational forces were caused that triggered a new generation of galaxies and stars.

The researchers believe that the dark matter assisted these stars to develop and flourish into the process of formation of star. However, it’s still a big mystery as to how these large galaxy clusters assembled together.

The findings of the study were detailed in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Comet 67P is slowly spinning down

March 22, 2015 By Kyle Mills

At the Royal Aeronautical Society the European space agency were telling that the icy comet takes 12.4 hours to complete one rotation; but they have observed that it has extended by about a second a day and this rate of change is increasing as the comet gets active.

So the comet which is observed by Europe’s Rosetta satellite is very gradually spinning down.

Flight director Andrea Accomazzo said “The gas jets coming out of the comet – they are acting like thrusters and are slowing down the comet.”

He further added that his team has learnt to fly Rosetta around the 10-billion-tonne, 4km-wide body with remarkable precision.

Navigators use a system of landmarks on the comet to understand how it is rotating and moving through space. This information is fed into a model that helps plan a trajectory for the satellite. While collecting this information they realized that it is not turning up in the right place.

In September last year also the rotation period extended by 33 ms per day.

Now as the comet is approaching towards sun it is throwing out gases and dust the rotation speed has reached a second per day.

Accomazzo said, “OK, it’s not going to slow down completely – but this gives you an order of magnitude for the accuracy we’re now achieving with the navigation of the spacecraft around the comet.”

Philae the lander ran out of power and is currently hibernating. The scientists are waiting for it to get charged. Philae need temperature higher than -45 degrees Celsius and atleat 5 watts of power to turn on and sent the signals to earth via the orbiter.

Scientists are hoping that the Philae reawakens as the Comet 67P approaches the sun.

ESA’s Rosetta detects molecular nitrogen on Comet 67P

March 21, 2015 By Stephanie James

European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta probe mission has detected peculiar mix of molecular nitrogen on the Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, offering crucial clues to the conditions that led to the birth of the solar system.

The study was led by Martin Rubin, a scientist at the space research and planetary sciences division of Switzerland’s University of Bern.

According to the scientists, molecular nitrogen has played a very crucial role in the formation of the young solar system.

The scientists at the European Space Agency said that the detection of molecular nitrogen suggests that Comet 67P was formed under low-temperature conditions, which is required to keep nitrogen in the form of ice).

The astronomers explain as nitrogen is also available on planets and moons in the outer solar system, the latest discovery made by Rosetta clearly implies that the family of comets of 67P has also formed in the same region.

“Its detection is particularly important since molecular nitrogen is thought to have been the most common type of nitrogen available when the solar system was forming. In the colder outer regions, it likely provided the main source of nitrogen that was incorporated into the gas planets. It also dominates the dense atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan and is present in the atmospheres and surface ices on Pluto and on Neptune’s moon Triton,” the ESA officials wrote in an issued statement.

The Rosetta spacecraft used the ROSINA instrument (Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis) last year between October 17 and October 23 for detecting the presence of molecular nitrogen on the comet. At that time, the Rosetta spacecraft was orbiting only 6.2 miles (or 10 kilometers) from the center of Comet 67P.

The more surprising thing for the scientists was the ratio of molecular nitrogen to carbon monoxide present in the comet. According to them, the ratio was 25 times less than the expectations derived from the models of the early solar system.

Scientists explain the unexpectedly low ratio is caused from the manner in which the formation of ice took place at extremely low temperatures.

The findings were detailed in the journal Science.

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