The image below was taken by a camera on Philae, the little bug robot that is still attached to the Rosetta satellite. At some time in the near future, Philae is going to detach and let the light gravity of the comet draw it down to its surface. How they are going to control it to get it to land where they want to land is not something I currently know. But they do.
Still, this image would be flat-out science fictional if it weren't for the somewhat astonishing fact that it's real. Note the jet of vapor shooting out of the sublimating snowball.
Below that is artistic conception of what the release, descent, and landing of Philae might look like. If it works.
No comments:
Post a Comment