Europe closed the day of landing on the comet

The Rosetta spacecraft of Europe on November 12 will drop the probe landing on a distant comet in the universe, in the first mission of mankind to "touch" directly into the celestial body and carry many This mystery, according to AFP.

>>>Philae will land on the comet "head" 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Ten days after the announcement of the landing position of Philae on the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency (ESA) over the weekend determined the date for Philippe to respond to the celestial body that was traveling in The space is 450 million kilometers from Earth.

The Rosetta spacecraft will try to allow the exploration of Philae to land on a strange-looking comet heading straight to the sun at 16.79 km per second.

Image of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko captured by the Rosetta ship - (Photo: NASA)

Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko is shaped like a rubber duck made of two blocks connected by a narrow neck.

Previously, ESA chose point J on the small block called "head" as Philae's response point. There is also a point C located in the remaining block of the comet that will be a backup landing position.

If all goes according to plan, Rosetta will drop Philae at 8:30 on November 12 (GMT time, 15: 35 minutes on the same day as Vietnam) when the spacecraft is mid-point. The broom is about 22.5 km and Philae will land on the comet seven hours later.

With a delay of 28 minutes and 20 seconds of a one-way signal transmitted from Rosetta, the confirmation of landing will reach Earth at approximately 16:00 on November 12 (GMT, 23 hours on Vietnamese time). ).

If ESA does not use the J landing position and chooses point C, then Philae will be separated from the Rosetta spacecraft at 13: 4 minutes on November 12 (GMT time, ie 20 hours 4 minutes on the same day as Vietnam time) ) at a distance of 12.5km compared to comets and landing four hours later. In this scenario, the landing confirmation will be transmitted to Earth at 17:30 on November 12 (GMT, or 0:30 PM on November 13, Vietnam time).

The expected target of the Philae probe on comets - (Photo: NASA)

It is known that Rosetta is equipped with 11 cameras and many sensors have captured and transmitted to Earth the amazing images of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Now scientists also expect greater discoveries from 10 measuring devices on Philae.

Accordingly, if successful, scientists can decipher the mysteries of comets - ice objects that were born at the same time as our solar system 4.6 billion years ago, through that can answer some questions about life on Earth.

Rosetta caught up to 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a 6 billion km journey with four transits of Earth and Mars to use gravity from the two planets to accelerate.

Weighing around 100kg, Philae will use hooks to anchor comets before conducting his experiments, including 30cm drills into comets to collect specimens to analyze them.

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