The Rosetta mission Philae lander -- which landed, bounced, ended up against a wall of comet stuff, went quiet after 60 frantic hours of battery-powered research, and then which came back to life and communicated (though only enough to say it was awake and not do any more science) -- is the source of most of the content of a new issue of Science.
The Space.com article below provides a summary:
Surprising comet discoveries by Rosetta's Philae Lander Unveiled
Here's one of them:
"Philae's observations aren't just skin-deep. Using its Comet Nucleus Sounding Experiment by Radiowave Transmission (CONSERT) instrument, the lander also sounded out the comet's interior. This instrument picks up long-wavelength signals beamed through 67P by the orbiting Rosetta mothership.
CONSERT data suggest that the "head" of the rubber-duck-shaped comet is internally homogeneous on the scale of a few tens of meters, and extremely porous, with open space making up 75 to 85 percent of its volume, researchers said."
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| Comet from 3 km on Philae approach |
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