There are probably few photos that have so much time, energy and advanced technology required as today published photos of the comet 67P. Take a photo and send to 600 million kilometers away, how does that work?
Yesterday afternoon landed Philae, the explorer of the European space probe Rosetta successfully on comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Today, the European Space Agency ESA has published the first photo Philae made from the surface of the comet
Eddy Echternach, astronomy journalist for NRC Handelsblad , tells how it is done:.
“Rosetta had first course travel to the comet. The spacecraft departed on March 2, 2004 and was on his way over ten years. On August 6 Rosetta arrived at the 67P, where he has since revolves around it. That’s where the Rosetta hundreds of pictures of the comet, including to see where Philae might land. “
safe
This is the first photo explorer 67P, made at about 3 kilometer distance:
And at this Flickr page of ESA are hundreds to see other photos of the Rosetta made in recent months.
Twice a window of a few hours
Yesterday Philae his long awaited landing on the planet. It was exciting that the landing was well managed, but last night showed that Philae started his program. That means he has panoramic photos and detail photos of the soil. Echternach explains how that goes:
“Philae send the pictures to go back to Rosetta. That can not once, but Rosetta about the comet and is not constantly Philae in connection.
“Rosetta then sends the information to Earth. This is also possible because of the turn around the comet does not at once. Because of all these interruptions, there is only two times a day a window of a few hours, on which information can be sent. And then of course not falter equipment. “
The photo is sent back via radio waves to Earth. A photograph via radio waves to pass 600 million miles, takes about half an hour
On the earth standing wave stations on three different continents:. One in Spain, one in the US and one in Australia. Echternach: “For example, information may come in from the room 24 hours a day, regardless of the position of the earth. Because of course that too. “
runsOn this site NASA (the US space organization that works closely with ESA) you in real-time to see which wave stations on earth at this time Information received from the spacecraft.
About the origin of the earth
So this morning was the first photo inside of Philae. The first – hopefully – a long series. The collected data must ultimately shed more light on the properties of comet 67P says Echternach:
“The comet Like its billions of species in the solar system, seen as a fairly are intact remnant of the material of which 4.5 billion years ago the planets of our solar system formed. The study of the comet Indirectly, therefore information about the birth of our own planet “
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