This spacecraft chased a comet for 6 billion kilometers - and finally caught up with it!
Yes! Space agency The European Space Agency (ESA) has succeeded after 10 years to catch up with a comet they were chasing using a space craft. This space craft is called Rosetta. And it is chasing a comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The space probe Rosetta on August 6, 2014 met this comet after a 10-year planning and a six-billion-kilometre (3.7-billion-mile) chase through the Solar System. Click here to know some more fun details about the comet, the space craft and the scientific lab!
Space craft Rosetta clicked this picture of the Comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko from a distance of 285 km. The space craft Rosetta met this comet on August 16, 2014 after a 10-year planning and a six-billion-kilometre (3.7-billion-mile) chase through the Solar System. In November, a robot scientific lab called Philae will be sent down to the surface to make the first-ever landing on a comet.AFP PHOTO / ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team That's not all. Astro-scientists plan to go where no one else has gone before! To the surface of the comet!
Yes- Rosetta will land on the comet, on November 11th, and will carry experiments on its surface using a robot scientific lab called Philae.It will be a very tricky landing, as the surface of the comet is not flat in most places. If the space craft lands at an uneven area, it can topple over and get damaged. Scientists believe that comets carry a lot of material within, which can help understand how life evolved on planets or even how planets are influenced by comets. If Rosetta lands on the comet and successfully carries out the experiments, it will be a huge achievement for all of the mankind. Let's keep our fingers crossed! How are comets born?
