The interplanetary probe "Rosette", aimed at the study of the comet 67P / CG Churyumov-Gerasimenko, came out of hibernation after 2.5 years

Today it became known that one of the most interesting projects of the European Space Agency, the Rosette probe, “woke up” without any problems, 2.5 years after entering the hibernation mode. The fact is that back in 2011, the probe retired from Earth at a distance of 549 million kilometers from the Sun, and at that distance the solar panels of the device simply could not supply enough energy to the batteries of the device.



The purpose of the probe itself is to study comet 67P / CG Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is scheduled to begin in August of this year. The last time the comet was available for observations from Earth was on October 5, 2013. Then its path was tracked on the Very Large Telescope (VLT); at this time, the distance to it was about 500 million kilometers.

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So, a few hours earlier, the probe “woke up” and sent a wake-up signal to Earth. The signal reached our planet at 22.30 Moscow time. Scientists have not only received the signal, but have already transferred some commands to the probe.



Now on the website of the European Space Agency is a direct translation from the probe control center. Habraparser does not allow you to place the embed-code of the player, so here's a link to the page where you can watch this website.



It is worth noting that the mission of the probe does not end after approaching the comet. After this event, another probe, Philae Lander, is sent from the Rosetta, which is supposed to sink directly onto the surface of the comet. The diameter of this object, the comet, is 4 kilometers.