Today is set to be a moderately emotional day , as ESA ’s wildly successful Rosetta missioncomes to an closing – with a aristocratical bang .
Rosetta launch on March 2 , 2004 , before enter orbit around Comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko on August 6 , 2014 . Since then , it ’s been study the comet in earnest , and it also released the Philae lander onto the aerofoil in November 2014 , which was recentlypronounced beat .
All the activeness is going to be stream live online tomorrow , so you ’ll be able to see views from mission control as scientist invite word of farewell . The spacecraft will also be perform somelast pant skill , too .
set about yesterday at 4.50pm EDT ( 9.50pm BST ) , Rosetta start its last manoeuvre that will jell it on a collision track with the comet . This descent start from an altitude of 19 kilometer ( 12 geographical mile ) above the surface .
Then , today at 6.40am EDT ( 11.40am BST ) , plus or minus 20 minutes , Rosetta is scheduled to touch the comet at walking speed ( confirmation is expected 40 min afterward , owing to the comet ’s space from Earth ) .
ESA will be live streaming the finaleherefrom 6.30am EDT ( 11.30am BST ) , and NASA will also have a streamherefrom 6 am EDT ( 11 am BST ) , which we ’ve embedded below .
It ’s unclear how well the space vehicle will survive the impact , but no matter , we will not hear from it again . Being unable to direct its antenna towards Earth to communicate , it will instead turn off all its systems following touchdown , going forever silent .
That ’s not to say the grand coda itself wo n’t be exciting . Rosetta will be transmitting all the style down , including look-alike , which will be divvy up throughout the day .
And the military mission ’s legacy will live long into the futurity . Already , Rosetta has increased our understanding of comets wish never before . Among its uncovering , it hasfound oxygenin the gas swarm around the comet , discovered theingredients for life sentence , and also find that Earth ’s watermay not have beendelivered by comet .
With no other missions to comets planned in the close - future , this will be the last glimpse we get up tight of one of these arctic stone for quite some fourth dimension . But the science will continue , with reams of data from Rosetta still to be studied and analyzed over the next few years .
For now , though , it ’s time to bid farewell . So long Rosetta , we scarcely sleep together ye .
