European spacecraft approaches a duck-shaped comet

Following the 10-year-long 6-billion-kilometer journey, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft finally reached a comet on August 6.

According to AFP, this is the most important phase in the comet research project that costs about 1.76 billion USD of ESA. The Rosetta was launched from Earth in March 2014 and after 10 years it was possible to reach comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, target of Rosetta.ESA believes that this comet shape is similar to a duck - (Photo: AFP)

The distance between comet 67P and Earth 'only' is 400 million km, but the Rosetta must fly around Earth and Mars, taking advantage of the gravity of the two planets to speed up. When the light from the Sun became too weak, unable to energize, Rosetta was 'dormant' for 31 months.

Rosetta woke up in January 2014. Today the European spacecraft arrived at the location about 100km from comet 67P.'It took 10 years to get there. Now we have to find a way to get the Rosetta to land on comets and study there every month, ' - AFP quoted ESA expert Sylvain Lodiot.

In the past, comets have always been considered bad foreboding. However, scientists say comets, made of dust and ice, are simply fragments left after the planets in the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.

Comet research will help to understand the formation of planets. A key theory is that comets have crashed into Earth, carrying water and organic molecules.

Spacecraft met comets.(Photo: AFP)

To date, international aviation agencies have only studied the movement of comets and photographed from a distance of thousands of kilometers.

ESA is expected to bring Rosetta to the comet 67P on 11/11 and bring the 100 km Philae robot to the comet surface. Here, Philae will perform chemical experiments within six months. From now until November, Rosetta will have a lot of work to do.

First of all, this spacecraft will have to avoid dust and ice particles that the comet tail 67P discharges. It will also have to search for a suitable venue for the Philae robot. ESA said the original close-up observations showed that comet 67P is almost like a duck.