Tomorrow at 12:00 Israel time its engines will be activated to slow down its speed and allow it to accompany the comet
Ken Kramer, Universe Today
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft will approach comet 6P Churyumov-Gardimenko today (August 67) after its engines were activated several times in recent days to correct the speed and trajectory.
The European Space Agency states that the Rosetta spacecraft, which cost 1.3 billion euros, is the first spacecraft ever to enter orbit around a comet after a decade-long pursuit that spanned 6.4 billion kilometers in interplanetary space, when the spacecraft bypasses the orbit of Jupiter and arrives behind the comet, which is between the orbit of Mars and that of Jupiter.
Today, the double and last maneuver is planned to slow down the speed of the spacecraft by 3.5 meters per second so that it moves parallel to the comet's speed of about 55 thousand km/h.
The latest image of comet 67P Churyumov-Gardimenko taken by Rosetta's navigation camera from about 500 kilometers from the comet captures edge-to-edge detail of the rubber duck-like body.
In November 2014, Rosetta will record another historical landmark when it launches the Philae lander from an altitude of 1-2 km for the first attempt to land on a comet core. The lander will drop a bell to anchor on the surface of the core, which is about 4 kilometers wide.
Together, Rosetta and Philae will investigate how the frozen comet, which is still in its initial state consisting of ice and rocks, will change as it approaches the Sun. The spacecraft will also look for molecules and organics, nucleic acids and amino acids, the building blocks of life as we know it and thus they will help answer the question of whether life on Earth was seeded by comets that crashed into its surface.
Rosetta will accompany 67P Churyumov-Gardimenko on its journey towards the Sun and back towards the orbit of Jupiter and will study the physical and chemical properties of the comet's nucleus and halo of ice and dust for about 17 months.
The launch of the spacecraft's engines and its entry into orbit around the comet are expected today at 12:00 noon Israel time. It takes 22 minutes and 27 seconds for the radio waves to reach Earth since the spacecraft (and the comet) are now 555 million km from the Sun.
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