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Rosetta Comet Mission Could Change Science Forever
Comet 67P Shows No Sign of Magnetism: If astronauts ever go on a walkabout around a comet, they can leave their compasses at home.
Rosetta Fuels Debate on Origin of Earth's Oceans: The Rosetta spacecraft has found the water vapour from its target comet to be significantly different to that found on Earth. The discovery fuels the debate on the origin of our planet's oceans.
Rosetta Orbiter Continues Into Its Full Science Phase: With the Philae lander’s mission complete, Rosetta will now continue its own extraordinary exploration, orbiting Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko during the coming year as the enigmatic body arcs ever closer to our Sun.
Philae Completes Main Mission Before Hibernation: Just prior to depleting its batteries and falling silent, Philae returned science data from its instruments, including ROLIS, COSAC, Ptolemy, SD2 and CONSERT, completing the measurements planned for the final block of experiments on the comet's surface.
How (And Where) Is Philae?: Many of Philae's key instruments have been activated and are autonomously running while the lander is out of radio contact with the Rosetta orbiter. Collecting their precious data hinges on the state of Philae's exhausting batteries when Rosetta's orbit returns it above the comet's horizon.
Philae Lander Is Frantically Doing Improvised Science As Its Batteries Die: Less than two days after its historic landing, Rosetta's probe may be reaching its final hours, and the scientific team is racing to collect as much data as possible before Philae's batteries run out. It's do or die, and at this point there's very little to lose in terms of its lifespan.
Philae's Battery Might Die Soon: The lander isn't getting enough light to recharge its pack.
Comet Lander Stuck against Bottom of Shady Cliff: Philae's solar panels will get just three hours of light per day, hindering Philae's science goals.
Rosetta: Concerns For Comet Lander After Uneven Landing: After a historic but awkward comet landing, the robot probe Philae is now stable and sending pictures - but there are concerns about its battery life. After two bounces, the first one about 1km back out into space, the lander settled in the shadow of a cliff, 1km from its target site.
Three Touchdowns For Rosetta's Lander: The lander remains unanchored to the surface at an as yet undetermined orientation. The science instruments are running and are delivering images and data, helping the team to learn more about the final landing site.
Rosetta: Waiting Game After Comet Lander Glitch: Data indicates that the Philae lander may have bounced twice, taking a full two hours to come to a rest.
Philae Lander Stable on Comet, for Now: Philae seems to have landed, bounced and then settled back down again, even though its harpoons apparently failed to secure the craft to the surface.
Philae Lander Touches Down On Comet 67P: Philae has landed. The Rosetta orbiter on Wednesday 11.12.14 dropped a spidery, three-legged robot the size of a small refrigerator and watched as it tentatively set down on a comet - the first time that the surface of these primordial balls of dust and ice has ever been explored.
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Alone No More
- Martian Meteorite ALH84001 Harbinger of Extraterrestrial Life
- Check out Bob's Martian Touchdown - A Rockhound's Cosmic Encounter with Three Extraterrestrials
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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
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's Weather Data Bolster Case for Brine: Martian weather and soil conditions that Curiosity has measured, together with perchlorate detected by Curiosity and previously by the Phoenix lander in Martian soil, could put liquid brine in the soil at night.
Curiosity Eyes Prominent Mineral Veins on Mars: Two-tone mineral veins at a site Curiosity has reached by climbing a layered Martian mountain offer clues about multiple episodes of fluid movement. These episodes occurred later than the wet environmental conditions that formed lake-bed deposits the rover examined at the mountain's base.
Curiosity Sniffs Out History of Martian Atmosphere: Curiosity is using a new experiment to better understand the history of the Martian atmosphere by analyzing isotopes of xenon.
Curiosity Finds Biologically Useful Nitrogen on Mars: A team using the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite aboard Curiosity rover has made the first detection of nitrogen on the surface of Mars from release during heating of Martian sediments.
Rover Arm Delivers Rock Powder Sample: Curiosity used its robotic arm to sieve and deliver a rock-powder sample to an onboard instrument. The sample was collected before mission managers temporarily suspended rover arm movement pending analysis of a short circuit.
Use of Rover Arm Expected to Resume: Mission managers expect to approve resumption of rover arm movements while continuing analysis of what appears to be an intermittent short circuit in the drill.
Testing to Diagnose Power Event in Curiosity: Curiosity is expected to remain stationary for several days of engineering analysis following an onboard fault-protection action that halted a process of transferring sample material between devices on the rover's robotic arm.
Curiosity Drills at Telegraph Peak: Curiosity used its drill to collect sample powder from inside a rock target called "Telegraph Peak", an exposure of bedrock that forms the basal layer of Mount Sharp that is expected to hold records of how ancient wet environments on Mars evolved into drier environments.
Latest Selfie from Curiosity Shows Wide Context: A sweeping view of the "Pahrump Hills" outcrop on Mars, where NASA's Curiosity rover has been working for five months, surrounds Curiosity in the rover's latest self-portrait.
More Curiosity in the News
Great Dying Caused By Ocean Acidification: The Great Dying - the largest mass extinction of all time - was likely triggered by a massive volcanic event that resulted in the acidification of the world's oceans, according to new research. Early Earth Collision Could Clear Up Two Geological Mysteries: Two outstanding, seemingly unconnected geology problems - the unexpected ratio of two neodymium isotopes in terrestrial rocks and the energy source for the dynamo that creates Earth's magnetic field - could be solved by a single new theory. Historic Colour Images Of Pluto And Charon: They may still look like fuzzy balls, but these are the first colour images of Pluto and its largest moon Charon captured by the New Horizons spacecraft on its historic mission to visit the dwarf planet. A Journey To Pluto And Beyond With New Horizons: On July 14, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which was launched in 2006, will fly within 10,000 kilometers of the surface of Pluto. Once the primary mission is complete, project scientists hope to have the spacecraft visit a few other large icy objects - thought to be similar to Pluto - that lie in the Kuiper Belt. China Rising - a Burgeoning Industrial Superpower Built on Coal: The People’s Republic now produces more than three billion tons of coal a year, and the fossil fuel has played a key role in accelerating the nation’s growth, along with its carbon dioxide emissions. China surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide in 2007. Meteorites Key To The Story Of Earth's Layers: A new analysis of the chemical make-up of meteorites has helped scientists work out when the Earth formed its layers.The research by an international team of scientists confirmed the Earth's first crust had formed around 4.5 billion years ago. Dating The Moon-Forming Impact Event With Meteorites: Through a combination of data analysis and numerical modeling work, researchers have found a record of the ancient moon-forming giant impact observable in stony meteorites Sixth Extinction, Rivaling That Of The Dinosaurs, Should Join The Big Five: Earth has seen its share of catastrophes, the worst being the "big five" mass extinctions scientists traditionally talk about. Now, paleontologists are arguing that a sixth extinction, 260 million years ago, at the end of a geological age called the Capitanian, deserves to be a member of the exclusive club. New Species of Terror Bird Discovered: Paleontologists have unearthed one of the most complete fossils of a phorusrhacid to date. The 3.5 million year old fossilized skeleton of the new species, dubbed Llallawavis scagliai, is approximately 95% complete, giving scientists the ability to study a terror bird’s anatomy in unprecedented detail. Moon's Magnetic Heart Still A Mystery: Today, the Moon has no global magnetic field. But billions of years ago the Moon had a magnetic field much stronger than the Earth does now. 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."
  
Bob Keller |
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