Космический Аппарат Rosetta Завершил Миссию Посадкой на Комету 67P

European Space Agency’s Rosetta Spacecraft

A Decade-Long Chase Through the Inner Solar System

The Rosetta probe spent a full decade traversing the solar system and chasing down Comet 67P, a rubber-duck-shaped space rock that orbits the sun between Earth and Jupiter, before finally rendezvousing with the icy remnant left over from the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago in August 2014. Rosetta spent the next two years tagging along with the comet as it traveled through the solar system, capturing stunning photos and studying its composition and changes over time.

Perhaps the most memorable moment during Rosetta’s time at comet 67P was the landing of Philae, a tiny lander released by Rosetta that bounced several times before coming to rest at a strange angle on the comet’s surface in November 2014, performing the first comet landing. The lander’s batteries ran out after a few hours since its solar arrays couldn’t face the sun, but the landing itself was considered mostly a success. Like a silent sentinel, Rosetta continued its observation of comet 67P, and even rediscovered Philae—which had disappeared from view after landing—just weeks before the orbiter crashed into comet 67P.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Why Mission Controllers Chose a Controlled Crash

By September 2016, Comet 67P was headed back out to the outer solar system in the direction of Jupiter, and Rosetta’s solar panels would not be able to generate enough power to keep pace with the comet so far out. It took 14 hours for Rosetta to make its slow-motion crash landing on comet 67P as mission scientists watched from a control center in Darmstadt, Germany. It hit the comet at a leisurely walking pace of about 2 mph (3.2 kph) on Sept. 30, 2016.

Patrick Martin, Rosetta mission manager, declared the operation complete at the time. Руководитель миссии «Розетта» Патрик Мартин заявил: «Я могу объявить об абсолютном успехе этого исторического спуска». Он также добавил: «Прощай, “Розетта”, ты выполнила свою задачу. Это была чистая наука в ее лучшем проявлении».

Patrick Martin

Data and Scientific Discoveries

Scientists began saying their final farewells to the Rosetta space probe hours before its planned crash-landing on a comet, but said that data collected during the mission would provide discoveries for many years to come. With almost two dozen scientific instruments between them, Rosetta and its lander gathered a wealth of data about 67P that have already given researchers significant new insights into the composition of comets and the formation of celestial bodies.

Исследователь из Бернского университета в Швейцарии Мохамед Эль-Маарри отметил: «Самое лучшее то, что мы еще даже не разобрали все наши данные». Эль-Маарри сказал OSIRIS, the main camera on board the probe, had captured some 80,000 images, many of which have yet to be analyzed fully. Other instruments were used to ‘sniff’ for molecules on the comet and examine its insides with radar.

Among the key findings was the discovery of molecular oxygen on the comet, forcing scientists to reconsider previous assumptions guiding the search for alien life. The mission also found that the type of water on 67P is different from that on Earth, which challenges the idea that the bulk of the water on our planet was “delivered” by comets crashing into it.

Сотрудник Лаборатории реактивного движения Калифорнийского технологического института в Пасадене Бьорн Давидссон отметил: «Получение знаний — это не всегда поиск ответов на вопросы». Он добавил: «Первый шаг к познанию — начать задавать правильные вопросы. Так что, возможно, это тот этап, на котором мы сейчас находимся: мы наконец-то начали понимать проблемы настолько хорошо, что стали задавать правильные вопросы».