Comet close-up

"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science."— Edwin Hubble

A 2.5 mile little dark body of rock, ice, dust, frozen gases, uneven and pitted, hurtling at a velocity more than 30,000 miles per hour. Bold enough to catch it? 

Start with a vision. Put in the best science and engineering skills at work. Launch a spacecraft. Let it play with the gravity of a couple of planets and swing far away. Wait for 10 years. After a lot (lot of) travel, and a quick sleep (hibernation) of three years, you get a rendezvous with a cosmic snowball! Definitely after nerve cracking moments that might seem Eons for the team behind such a mission. 

Yet again, we witness a whole new level of science and engineering. 10 years and four billion miles of travel, Philae Touchdown on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Jupiter family of comets with periods of less than 20 years). Philae bid goodbye to its mother spacecraft Rosetta and took a seven hour drop to reach its target. Rosetta was launched in March 2004, using the gravity of Earth and Mars to sling and achieve the required velocity. A decade long journey brought it close to its ultimate destination. A destination so far, that signals take approximately 30 minutes to reach home. Rosetta was named so after an engraved stone (black basalt) which led in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics. While Philae, is named after an island (now submerged) in the River Nile, on which an obelisk was found that gave clues to decipher the Rosetta stone.

While the probe has landed and is reported to be stable, it has not securely anchored to the surface. While millions pray for its well being, let us wait and watch while Philae readies itself for some science. A science that will take us close to the origin of the family of the Sun by studying the fundamental building blocks of solar system. Philae is intended to study the structure and composition of the comet through its suite of ten instruments. These include an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer, cameras, isotopic composition study, radio and electric sounders, gas analyzer, magnetometer and plasma monitor and an instrument to drill upto 8 inches,  Meanwhile, Rosetta continues to reveal information of the Comet as it would escort the comet as it travels towards the Sun and approaches perihelion in August 2015. 

There was a time when comets alarmed people and today humanity dares to reach upto them. Some one did think of catching a comet. Well, literally.

Audacious. Incredible. Exciting. 

Comet 67P                                                                       Rosetta/ESA

* The first comet I saw through the telescope was Ikeya-Zhang 12 years back, I could only be awed by its sheer beauty! Truly heavenly. 

Some Links:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/sets/72157638315605535/

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?Sort=Target&Target=Comets&MCode=Rosetta&Display=Dates