Rosetta crashed into a comet: the saddest space mission Sibnet.ru

the Rosetta spacecraft crashed on the surface of the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko — the collision occurred on September 30 13.39 in Moscow, reported the press service of the European space Agency (ESA). The collapse was planned by the scientists, as the finale of the 12-year mission. Sibnet.ru remembered the main stages of the Grand experiment.

Long flight

the Rosetta spacecraft was launched in March 2004 with a spaceport in Kourou to study the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Its name he received in honor of Rosetta stone by which scientists in the nineteenth century were able to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

the Rosetta Mission immediately called a breakthrough — the first unit of the earth were to reach the comet and land on her lander, and thus humanity has been able to come close to solving the mystery of these heavenly bodies traveling through our Solar system.

the Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was opened 1969 by Soviet astronomers, it is remarkable that rotates around the Sun in less than two hundred years, whereas most other large comets are long-period.

the Automatic station took more than ten years to fly up to the celestial body — during this time Rosetta has successfully overcome the more than six billion kilometers. On Board the spacecraft, weighing about three tons was the descent module Philae, and many scientific instruments.

Flight of the Rosetta characterized by high complexity — the machine had to make four turns around the Sun and fly to Mars, to use the power of its attraction for overclocking. After that, the probe caught up with comet and made four virtuoso gravitational maneuver to enter the orbit of the object of research. the

Rendezvous in outer space

Rosetta 6 Aug 2014 successfully approached the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko at a distance of 100 kilometers, and then began the main scientific program. The resulting photographs astronomers saw the comet has a dumbbell shape with a length of about six kilometers.

the Expedition was decided on the largest area of the comet where the surface was relatively smooth. The lander Philae was carried about 27 kilograms of payload, among which was the radar, drill, various sensors, mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph.
Landing mission was launched on 12 November 2014, but in the end almost ended in failure — for some strange reason, the rocket engines did not work, the probe was thrown from the impact and harpoons are unable to gain a foothold in the cometary soil. Philae eventually made three touch and sat in the very wrong place — in the shade of the rocks, which excluded his charge.
Scientists had to work in emergency conditions for three days, they managed to get a huge amount of data. The comet has found organic compounds, some of which are on the surface of these celestial bodies have never been found. Also with the help of Philae astronomers have heard of the mysterious “singing” of the comet.
The comet “atmosphere”, the researchers found carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and even water in the gaseous state. Thus, we confirmed the theory that comets are able to deliver on the planet “building material” for the origin of life.
Philae disconnected after the exhaustion of built-in batteries, however, astronomers had hope that sooner or later the comet will turn to the Sun and the camera “wakes up”. And so it happened — probe woke up after seven months and was able to hold two small session. After that, Philae fell silent forever. the

Riding the comet

to Complete the Rosetta mission scientists decided collision with a comet is a celestial body beginning to move away from the Sun, so the device soon could not get enough energy to continue research. In social networks began with a touching farewell from Rosetta — some have even sent her a postcard.

the Researchers said that the planned crash will provide a unique data — for example, the latest images of the comet passed at a distance of only five meters. The total amount of data transferred on the last day of life Rosetta was about 200 MB.

in addition, Rosetta was a special plate with words in a thousand languages — if hypothetical aliens ever landed on a comet, they have pretty smash his head to decipher the artifact.

the Rosetta Mission length of 12 years ended, however, astronomers stress that the work on the received device data on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko will take several years and will allow us to expand our knowledge about the Solar system.

For those who have come to expect from scientific discoveries mundane use, sale produced chocolates and pillows, echoing the unusual shape of the comet, and also a perfume called “Open space”, sending its scent.

Photo: © ESA

30 September 2016, 20:03 NSK

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