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Rosetta Comet Mission Could Change Science Forever
Ride Along With Rosetta Through The Eyes Of OSIRIS: Rosetta's OSIRIS camera team has launched a dedicated website to showcase their recent images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The high-resolution images, taken either with the narrow- or wide-angle scientific imaging camera, will show the comet as recently as the day before.
Rosetta and Philae: One Year Since Landing On A Comet: One year since Philae made its historic landing on a comet, mission teams remain hopeful for renewed contact with the lander, while also looking ahead to next year's grand finale: making a controlled impact of the Rosetta orbiter on the comet.
First Detection Of Molecular Oxygen At A Comet: Rosetta has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation.
How Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Got Its Shape: The origin of the comet’s double-lobed form has been a key question since Rosetta first revealed its surprising shape in July 2014. Did two comets merge or did localised erosion of a single object form the 'neck'? Now, scientists have an unambiguous answer.
Rosetta Reveals 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's Water-Ice Cycle: Rosetta has provided evidence for a daily water-ice cycle on and near the surface of comets.
Rosetta's Big Day In The Sun: At Perihelion on August 13th, 2015, Rosetta’s measurements suggest Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is spewing up to 300 kg of water vapour - roughly the equivalent of two bathtubs - every second. This is a thousand times more than was observed this time last year when Rosetta first approached the comet.
67P/Comet's Fireworks Display Ahead Of Perihelion: In the approach to perihelion over the past few weeks, Rosetta has been witnessing growing activity from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with one dramatic outburst event proving so powerful that it even pushed away the incoming solar wind.
Celebrating A Year At 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: On August 6th, 2015 ESA’s Rosetta mission celebrated one year at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, with its closest approach to the Sun just one week away.
Science On The Surface Of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko: Complex molecules that could be key building blocks of life, the daily rise and fall of temperature, and an assessment of the surface properties and internal structure of the comet are just some of the highlights of the first scientific analysis of the data returned by Rosetta’s lander Philae.
Philae Lander Photos Show There Is More To Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko Than Soft Dust: Comet lander Philae may be uncommunicative at the moment, but the pictures and measurements it took after it touched down on a comet have shown scientists the comet is covered with coarse material, rather than dust, and is harder than expected.
Philae Wakes Up From Hibernation: Rosetta's lander Philae has woken up after seven months in hibernation on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
More Rosetta in the News
- Alone No More
- Martian Meteorite ALH84001 Harbinger of Extraterrestrial Life
- Check out Bob's Martian Touchdown - A Rockhound's Cosmic Encounter with Three Extraterrestrials
- Curiosity on Mars
- The Landing: Another Small Step for Man - A Giant Leap for Robot Kind
- The Landing Site: The Geological Jackpot at Gale Crater
- Curiosity: The Escalade of Mars Rovers
- The Science Payload: Rock Zappers and the Search for Biosignatures
- Want to Know More? References and Further Reading
- The Landing Site: The Geological Jackpot at Gale Crater
Picture Perfect Proof That Mars Once Had Wet Seasons: Curiosity has imaged cross-bedded sandstones at the edge of a location called Hidden Valley, providing compelling photographic evidence there were regular cycles of water carrying plumes of river sediments flowing into the lake which once filled Gale crater.
Curiosity Rounds Martian Dune to Get to the Other Side: Partway through the first up-close study ever conducted of extraterrestrial sand dunes, Curiosity is providing dramatic views of a dune's steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune's windward slope.
Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team: Curiosity has found much higher concentrations of silica at some sites it has investigated in the past seven months than anywhere else it has visited since landing on Mars 40 months ago. Understanding the hydrology behind the silica enrichment is key to learning more about other conditions in ancient wet environments on Mars.
Curiosity Reaches Sand Dunes: Curiosity Mars has begun an up-close investigation of the "Bagnold Dunes", a band of active dunes up to two stories tall along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. The rover is using its wheels, as well as its science payload, to investigate sand that forms active dunes on Mars. Plans call for Curiosity to scoop up and sieve sand for onboard laboratory analysis.
Curiosity Heads Toward Active Dunes: On its way to higher layers of the mountain where it is investigating how Mars' environment changed billions of years ago, Curiosity Mars will take advantage of a chance to study some modern Martian activity at mobile sand dunes.
Curiosity Explores Mineral Veins on Mars: Scientists now have a better understanding about Garden City, a site with the most chemically diverse mineral veins Curiosity has examined on Mars, including calcium sulfate in some veins and magnesium sulfate in others. Additional veins were found to be rich in fluorine or varying levels of iron. The diverse composition of the crisscrossing veins points to multiple episodes of water moving through fractures in the bedrock when it was buried.
Curiosity Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars: Observations from Curiosity suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed on Mars at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp.
Curiosity's Drill Hole and Location are Picture Perfect: Curiosity has drilled its eighth hole on Mars, and its fifth since reaching Mount Sharp one year ago. Samples from the 2.6" deep hole in unaltered Stimson unit sandstone will be analyzed by Curiosity and used for comparison with samples of nearby sandstone which appear to be altered by fluids - likely groundwater with other dissolved chemicals.
Mars Panorama from Curiosity Shows Petrified Sand Dunes: This sandstone outcrop - part of a geological layer that Curiosity's science team calls the Stimson unit - has a structure called crossbedding on a large scale that the team has interpreted as deposits of sand dunes formed by wind. Similar-looking petrified sand dunes are common in the U.S. Southwest.
Curiosity Moves Onward After 'Marias Pass' Studies: Curiosity is driving toward the southwest after departing a region where for several weeks it investigated a geological contact zone and rocks that are unexpectedly high in silica and hydrogen content. The hydrogen indicates water bound to minerals in the ground.
Curiosity Inspects Unusual Bedrock: Curiosity has found a target unlike anything it has studied before - bedrock with surprisingly high levels of silica. Silica is a rock-forming compound containing silicon and oxygen, commonly found on Earth as quartz. High levels of silica in the rock could indicate ideal conditions for preserving ancient organic material, if present, so the science team wants to take a closer look.
More Curiosity in the News
New Horizons Reveals Most Detailed Image Of Pluto Yet: The New Horizons spacecraft captured this high-resolution enhanced colour view of Pluto during its flyby of the dwarf planet on July 14. Take the controls and zoom into NASA's biggest, boldest image of Pluto yet. Ceres' Mysterious Bright Spots Are Giant Salt Pans: New findings reveal the strange bright spots on the dwarf planet Ceres are giant salt pans caused by the evaporation of water from a subsurface ocean. 10,000-Year Record Shows Dramatic Uplift At Andean Volcano: Ongoing studies of a massive volcanic field in the Andes mountains show that the rapid uplift which has raised the surface more than six feet in eight years has occurred many times during the past 10,000 years. The Question Of Mantle Plumes: If the vast body of mantle plume research has done nothing else, it has revealed the difficulties inherent in trying to plumb the depths of Earth's interior. Tiny Fossil Lends Insight On Flowering Plants: The discovery of exceptionally well-preserved, tiny fossil seeds dating back to the Early Cretaceous corroborates that flowering plants were small opportunistic colonizers at that time. Solid Inner, Inner Core May Be Relic Of Earth’s Earliest Days: New simulations of the Earth's formation suggest that the innermost part of the inner core solidified shortly after the planet's assembly, rather than roughly 3 billion years later alongside the rest of the inner core. Announcing The Carbon Mineral Challenge: The hunt is on for Earth’s undiscovered carbon minerals. Scientists, using statistical calculations, predict at least 145 of Earth’s carbon-bearing minerals remain undiscovered. They even have some ideas about where to look. But to find them, they need the help of the world’s mineral collecting community. Largest Diamond In More Than A Century Found In Botswana: The 1,111-carat gem is only second in size to the Cullinan diamond, which was unearthed in South Africa in 1905. The 65mm x 56mm x 40mm stone is yet to be evaluated, but one commodities and mining analyst said it had the potential to be "one very expensive diamond". 10 States With Fossil-Hunting Sites For The Public: Fossil hunters have always been a combination of professionals and amateurs, dating back to the 19th century when 12-year-old Mary Anning and her brother Joseph discovered an ichthyosaur skeleton near their home in Dorset, England. Today, there are a number of well-known fossil beds within a few hours drive of some of the USA's largest cities. Bite Marks Offer Best Evidence Yet Of Tyrannosaur Cannibalism: Tyrannosaurs were not the most discerning of carnivores. In addition to dining on other dinosaurs, like Triceratops and duck-billed hadrosaurs, it appears the fearsome apex predators weren’t averse to making a meal of their own kind. Half-Billion-Year-Old Brains Preserved In Fool's Gold: A set of incredible fossils from southwest China reveals something amazing: 520 million-year-old brains, some preserved in fool's gold. The brains belong to shrimplike creatures just a few centimeters long named Fuxianhuia protensa, which scuttled around the seafloor during the Cambrian Period. Who's In That Vomit, Anyhow?: Everyone likes "gross" fossils. Fossil poo always gets attention, and infected bones are cool to look at, but vomit is fairly unusual in the fossil record. More Rocks in the News
Utah Goblin Topplers Sentenced To Probation : Glenn Tuck Taylor and David Benjamin Hall may have to shell out thousands to pay for warning signs telling future visitors to Goblin Valley State Park to leave the rocks alone. The men were sentenced to a year of probation without jail time and payment of restitution after pleading guilty to knocking over an ancient rock formation in the state park.
Ex-Boy Scout Leaders Charged With Felonies: It just took a little push to topple the delicately perched boulder - millions of years in the making - in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park. Then the man who did it laughed, high-fived his son, and flexed his muscles while being cheered on by a fellow Boy Scout leader. He is not likely celebrating now, nor is his friend who videotaped then publicized the episode, after both were charged with third-degree felonies. Boy Scouts Toss 2 Leaders Who Knocked Over Goblin: A northern Utah Boy Scouts council has announced that former Boy Scout leaders Glenn Taylor and Dave Hall will no longer be allowed to lead scouting troops as a result of their vandalism of Goblin Valley State Park. Boy Scout Leaders Destroy Ancient Formation In Utah's Goblin Valley: Boy Scout and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints youth leaders Dave Hall, Glenn Taylor and Dylan Taylor are potentially facing felony charges for destroying a rock formation nearly 200 million years old. The trio of vandals was adventuring in Utah's Goblin Valley State Park when they decided to film themselves knocking over one of the formations, known as "Goblins."
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