Rosetta, the first probe robotics sent to orbit and descend to a comet, ending today his mission. But yesterday, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the probe has already provided much to humanity. Allowed to find evidence that comets, like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko where Rosetta landed today, brought to Earth organic molecules that are very complex that could have helped generate life on Earth.
The probe robotics had been launched on 2 march 2004, and toured 6.400 million kilometers to reach the comet ten years later. Had the mission from orbit around the comet 67P/Churiumov-Guerasimenko between 2014 and 2015. Since the probe sent a lander, Philae, to the comet’s surface. Today, the ship-which works with solar panels, you will land on the side of a pit of the comet. There, scientists believe they might find even more evidence of the origin of life in the solar system. The time will be able to follow live on the Internet here. The probe will take pictures throughout its descent, up to three per minute, that will portray them as never the area of pits of an active comet.
Yesterday, the ESA presented in its operations control center in Darmstadt, in Germany, that the mission had already detected acetamide, acetone, propanal and methyl, which are molecules that contributed to the creation of life on Earth. As now it is 600 million kilometers from the Sun, will no longer receive the solar energy enough to keep in operation. That’s why, will be his end.
however, for scientists the work will not end. “It is the time in which we are going to analyse a lot of data, probably for ten more years, much work remains”, said the agency Efe Gerhard Schwehm, who was director of the Rosetta mission between 2004 and 2013, and project scientist for twenty years. One of the questions of this ESA was to discover the importance of comets in the formation of the Solar System.
See also: Rosetta and Philae: a picture of a farewell from space
Since the 9th of last August, Rosetta comes to plotting elliptical orbits ever closer to the comet , and during the last flight, could be within 1 km of the surface, a distance never before achieved. The manoeuvre of collision was held today, when Rosetta is at an altitude of 19 kilometers from the comet. Will be a slow free-fall towards the comet in order to maximize the number of scientific measurements that can be taken and send to the Earth before the impact.
See also: The Rosetta probe cuts off the communication with the robot spacecraft Philae
To the researchers, was a surprise to find on the comet 67P oxygen in a state of very pure, usually is not so because it is an element very reactive and can be mixed easily with other elements. This means that the oxygen was on the comet at the beginning of the Solar System, makes 4,600 million years. the Another source of amazement was the discovery that the comet’s nucleus has no magnetic field. If 67P is representative of the nuclei of comets, it is unlikely that the magnetic forces have played a role in the accumulation of rocky bodies more than a meter, which participated in the formation of the planets, deduced scientists. These results could force them to review a theory key about the formation of comets and other bodies in the solar system.
The comet is very porous and has a very low density, of about 0.5 grams per cubic centimeter, so that would float in the water like a cork, according to Schwehm. At the close of the mission will turn off all the systems on board Rosetta and stop bands of frequency that has been used for that can be used for other missions without interference, he explained.
The scientists of the ESA is very pleased with the results of the mission, that has shown that are on the first line along with the u.s. space agency NASA in the research world, said Schwehm. In its long journey through the Solar System, Rosetta received the impulse of gravity of the Earth and Mars because there is a rocket launcher capable of sending the probe directly to the comet.
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