News Archive / Tagged: Rosetta

• Rosetta images show changes on Comet 67P as it approached the Sun

  Laurel KornfeldMarch 23rd, 2017

  Two separate studies of images captured by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta probe highlight increasing activity on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko as it approached perihelion, the point in its orbit closest to the Sun.

• Kepler images Comet 67/P from afar

  Laurel KornfeldOctober 11th, 2016

  As the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission spent its last month orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, designed to search for exoplanets, captured distant "big picture" views of the comet.

• Rosetta mission ends with spacecraft’s descent onto comet

  Laurel KornfeldSeptember 30th, 2016

  The European Space Agency (ESA) ended its Rosetta mission at 7:19 a.m. EDT (11:19 GMT) Sept. 30 with a controlled touchdown of the spacecraft onto the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

• Philae lander found wedged in ‘dark crack’ on comet 67P

  Derek RichardsonSeptember 5th, 2016

  After months of poring over images to search for the precise landing location of the lost Philae lander, European Space Agency (ESA) scientists finally located it with the Rosetta orbiter's high-resolution camera. The tiny spacecraft was seen to be wedged in a "dark crack" on the smaller lobe of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

• The little lander that could: the legacy of Philae

  Tomasz NowakowskiApril 18th, 2016

  Philae, the little lander that was declared lost by the European Space Agency (ESA) earlier this year, has achieved a great deal despite its relatively short operational life on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Future comet-landing missions will likely build upon the legacy that this small wayward probe has left behind.

• Philae, we hardly knew ye

  Joe LatrellFebruary 14th, 2016

  The European Space Agency (ESA) has suspended further attempts to contact Philae, the small comet lander currently sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P). The lander has not been heard from since July of 2015, and that signal was intermittent at best.

• Rosetta mission celebrates one year anniversary of comet landing

  Joe LatrellNovember 18th, 2015

  Scientists working with the European Space Agency (ESA) recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of the crowning achievement of the Rosetta mission – the landing of the Philae probe on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The tiny Philae lander touched down on the comet's surface on November 12, 2014, and has provided new insights into how cometary bodies are formed, live their lives – and die.

• Rosetta Experts to present the mission at International Astronautical Congress in Jerusalem

  Press ReleaseAugust 30th, 2015

  The leaders of the famed Rosetta program will present their operational highlights during a special “highlight lecture” at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Jerusalem October 12-16th.

• Is there life on Rosetta’s comet? New claims spark controversy

  Tomasz NowakowskiJuly 8th, 2015

  Two British scientists made the headlines on Monday, July 6, by making the extraordinary claim that Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko hosts microbial alien life, which immediately sparked a wave of skepticism. The University of Buckingham’s Chandra Wickramasinghe and his colleague, Max Wallis of the University of Cardiff, presented their findings at the National Astronomy Meeting 2015, which is taking […]

• Rosetta detects exposed water ice on comet’s surface

  Jim SharkeyJune 27th, 2015

  Scientists using the high-resolution science camera on board the European Space Agency’s (ESA ) Rosetta spacecraft have identified over a hundred patches of water ice a few meters in size on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerssimenko. A new study which focused on an analysis of the bright patches of exposed ice was recently published in the journal […]

• Wayward Philae: ESA’s stranded comet lander wakes up from hibernation

  Tomasz NowakowskiJune 14th, 2015

  It had been seven months without any word from the European Space Agency’s Philae lander – until yesterday. ESA scientists, on Saturday, June 13 at 4:28 p.m. EDT (20:28 GMT), received the first signals from the lost spacecraft since it had suddenly went silent three days after touching down on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Nov. 12, […]

• Alice in cometland: NASA spectrograph on Rosetta spacecraft makes atmospheric discovery

  Tomasz NowakowskiJune 6th, 2015

  Just like the girl adventurer in Lewis Carroll’s famous novel, Nasa’s Alice instrument aboard Esa’s Rosetta spacecraft takes measurements to unveil the wonderful world of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, full of peculiar features and yet uncovered atmospheric mysteries. 

• Rosetta detects molecular nitrogen on comet 67P

  SpaceFlight InsiderMarch 26th, 2015

  The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft is a mission of firsts – first to rendezvous with a comet, first to land on a comet, and now first to detect molecular nitrogen on a comet. The latest data collected at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is providing clues about the temperature environment in which it formed.

• Philae phone home: scientists will try to contact the comet lander on March 12

  Tomasz NowakowskiMarch 11th, 2015

  The European Space Agency (ESA) led Rosetta Mission made history last year by becoming the first spacecraft to orbit a comet and deploy a lander onto its surface. The Philae lander touched down on the comet’s surface on Nov. 19, 2014. The washing-machine sized lander’s anchoring system failed to deploy and the probe bounced across […]

• Rosetta conducts closest flyby yet of the surface of comet 67P

  SpaceFlight InsiderFebruary 17th, 2015

  As people on Earth were celebrating Valentine’s Day over the weekend, a lonely space probe was orbiting a large hunk of ice and rock floating in outer space. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft has spent the last six months orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (comet 67P for short), busily taking pictures of the rocky terrain […]