They could even have provided the complex organic molecules that may have played a crucial role in the evolution of life on Earth. Comets, for example, probably brought much of the water in today's oceans. There is convincing evidence that comets played a key role in the evolution of the planets, because cometary impacts are known to have been much more common in the early Solar System than today. Therefore, an in-depth analysis of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by Rosetta and its lander will provide essential information to understand how the Solar System formed. The comet’s composition reflects the composition of the pre-solar nebula out of which the Sun and the planets of the Solar System formed, more than 4.6 billion years ago. Rosetta's prime objective is to help understand the origin and evolution of the Solar System.ESA’s Rosetta mission will allow scientists to unlock the mysteries of the oldest building blocks of our Solar System: comets. The Rosetta Stone provided the key to an ancient civilization. As a result of this breakthrough, scholars were able to piece together the history of a lost culture. By comparing the three carved inscriptions on the stone (written in two forms of Egyptian and Greek), historians were able to decipher the mysterious hieroglyphics – the written language of ancient Egypt. The stone revolutionized our understanding of the past. An obelisk found on Philae provided the French scholar/historian/archeologist Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) with the final clues for deciphering the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone – thus the mission name. The Probe is named after the famous Rosetta Stone, a slab of volcanic basalt found near the Egyptian town of Rashid (Rosetta) in 1799 on the Nile island of Philae (soldiers in Napoleon's army discovered the Rosetta Stone). The spacecraft will be located at a distance of 600 million km or 4AU (astronomical units) from the sun upon the comet. Launched in March 2004 and expected to reach the comet by 2014, Rosetta will be the first mission to revolve around the comet's nucleus and deliver a lander to its surface. Like two ships passing in the night (or one ship and one icy dirtball), they screamed past each other at hyper velocity - providing valuable insight, but fleeting glimpses, into the life of a comet. All these missions have had one thing in common: the high-speed flyby. To date, half a dozen of these most heavenly of heavenly bodies have been visited by spacecraft in an attempt to unlock their secrets. 1)Ĭomets are among the most beautiful and least understood nomads of the night sky. It will also land a package of instruments (the Philae Lander) to study some of the most primitive, unprocessed material in the solar system. The goal of the Probe is to rendezvous with the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and map its surface in fine detail. 1993 as the third cornerstone mission in its long-term science program, called 'Horizon 2000'. Rosetta is a deep space mission of ESA, it is the first mission designed to both orbit and land on a comet. Rosetta Rendezvous Mission with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Spacecraft Launch Sensor Complement Philae Mission Status References
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