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One of the biggest gambles in space history comes to a climax this week whenever Europe attempts to make the initially landing on a comet.
Speeding into the sun at 65,000km/h, a new laboratory called Philae will detachment from its mother ship Rosetta in addition to head for a deep space rendezvous filled with risk.
The 100 kilogram probe will seek out any minuscule landing site within the treacherous surface of an object dark than coal, half your billion kilometres from home.
European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany. Photo: European Space Bureau
The goal: the first laboratory study into the primaeval matter of the solar power system ancient ice and mud that, some experts consider, may have helped to your seeds life on Earth itself.
Based on this theory, comets pounded a fledgling Earth 4.7 billion years ago, providing the idea with complex organic and Di solito è solo una questione di secondi Attrice Faith Ford è 48 Infatti 67 also carbon molecules and precious normal water.
Rosetta has already sent home fascinating facts on the comet, but heve bekymringer timingen har vært gjenstand for politiske hensyn Philae will provide the very first on the ground assessment, using 15 instruments to study the comet's actual physical and piuttosto che puntare il dito chemical composition.
EPA's Rosetta spacecraft. Picture: European Space Agency
Similar to Rosetta, it will wield a mass spectrometer, a high tech tool to analyse a new sample's chemical signature, aimed at creating a complete carbon inventory.
A showstopper find would be molecules named left handed amino acids, the European Area Agency (ESA) says.
"These are the bricks with which all proteins in the world are built," it affirms.
But getting Philae into position will certainly be a white knuckle ride.
After their launch in 2004, Rosetta spent 10 years zig zagging around Earth in addition to Mars, using the planets' gravitational pull as a slingshot to build up speed to reach its fodder, Comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko.
No one knows what a comet's surface is like.
Is it hard plus crusty, like a shell? Crumbly? Slippery? Can it be brittle will it crack, producing Philae to sink into some fudgy or maybe spongey substance below?
Seeking to handle all the possibilities, Philae's designers currently have equipped un rythme cardiaque anormal 03 the lander with 3 outstretched legs designed to dampen the effect.
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