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Related: About this forum'Like Froth on a Cappuccino': Spacecraft's Chaotic Landing Reveals Comet's Softness
Detective work reconstructs the final movements of the European Space Agencys Philae probe
By Elizabeth Gibney, Nature magazine on November 1, 2020
Artists impression of the Philae lander on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab
The chaotic crash-landing of a robotic spacecraft called Philae has yielded serendipitous insights into the softness of comets.
In 2014, the pioneering European Space Agency (ESA) lander touched down on comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko, after a ten-year journey aboard its mothership, Rosetta. But rather than fix itself to the surface, Philae bounced twice and ended up on its side under a shady overhang, cutting its mission short.
After a meticulous search, an ESA team has now discovered the previously unknown site of Philaes second touchdownand with it an imprint that the craft left in comet ice that is billions of years old.
The imprint has allowed the researchers to measure the strength of ice beneath the comets surfaceand they discovered that it is exceptionally soft. Its softer than the lightest snow, the froth on your cappuccino or even the bubbles in your bubble bath, says Laurence ORourke, an ESA scientist at the European Space Astronomy Centre in Madrid, who led a search to locate the wayward lander, which was found in 2016.
More:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/like-froth-on-a-cappuccino-spacecrafts-chaotic-landing-reveals-comets-softness/
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'Like Froth on a Cappuccino': Spacecraft's Chaotic Landing Reveals Comet's Softness (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Nov 2020
OP
Blue Owl
(50,325 posts)1. Glad to see this wasn't a Santorum thread
n/t
ret5hd
(20,486 posts)2. Well, now it is.
Dammit.
we can't upvote comments.