Meeting the comet today
Two years ago, an incredible landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars took place, and today there is an equally complex and important event in the solar system - the Rosetta spacecraft, after a ten-year flight, goes into orbit of comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
I will try as quickly as possible to report on how this operation is proceeding 400 million kilometers from Earth.
Today, the distance between the probe and the cometary core will be reduced to 100 km, the device will correct the trajectory and start its rotation around the four-kilometer “dirty snow”. Formally, this will not be an exit into orbit, since the comet’s gravity is not enough to hold Rosetta, but its trajectory provides for this condition. The probe will fly in front of the comet, so as not to fall into its tail, where dust can cause damage to the instruments. The device will begin a slow convergence with the core, rotating along the so-called. "Triangular arcs". Each turn in such an "orbit" will also be carried out by switching on the engines, but today there will be a final correction on the trajectory of convergence with the comet.
')
Switching on the engines will take 6 minutes 26 seconds and will begin at 13:00 Moscow time.
The distance to the probe causes a data transfer delay of 22 minutes. Due to difficulties in the transmission, we will not be able to watch the rendezvous video, but we will receive images from the navigation camera as soon as possible.
In the meantime, ESA experts have prepared a demo video that allows you to imagine what Rosetta's flight will look like around a comet.
This core model is already fresh, built on the basis of images taken in July.
The live broadcast will be provided on the ESA website . Although, I am afraid, at the key moment the site will not withstand the influx of viewers.
I am now at the COSPAR Scientific Assembly at Moscow State University, where about 2 thousand astronomers, planetologists and astrophysicists from around the world gathered. Here, the live broadcast will also be organized, so we will be able to receive information practically from the first hands. Moreover, here is the discoverer of comet Klim Churyumov. I can not imagine what feelings he is experiencing at this moment. Did he think about something like this 45 years ago when he examined a comet in pictures taken by Svetlana Gerasimenko?
Rosetta has two sets of cameras: Navcam Navcam, the animation with which opens this material. And the scientific camera OSIRIS, it has a more powerful lens (800 mm), which is about three times the power of Navcam.
Here is a snapshot of OSIRIS cometary nucleus from a distance of 1 thousand km.
If today we publish a snapshot of this camera, then we will see a comet at the highest resolution in the entire history of research.
At the moment, the speed of the comet and Rosetta is approximately 15.2 km / s (55 thousand km / h), but relative to each other, their speed does not exceed 1 m / s. This is significantly different from any other research probe encountered with comets. Earlier, the vehicles converged with comets on opposite trajectories from which their speeds were summed up and reached tens of kilometers per second. Those. There was no question of any close approximation - the dust from the comet's tail quickly incapacitated the apparatus or instruments.
This is told, in artistic form, by the cartoon from ESA:
Original
After 4 months, an equally important event will take place - the landing of the Philae descent vehicle on a comet, but the success of this unprecedented operation largely depends on today.
Keep for updates.
Read more about Rosetta here: habrahabr.ru/post/211444
UPD:
They showed pictures from OSIRIS, which are the most detailed image of the comet's surface, but so far only the screen:
Yes, we are in orbit!
We are waiting for new pictures from Rosetta.
Oh yeah!
Yes, these guys showed a bit of cosmic magic:
I will try as quickly as possible to report on how this operation is proceeding 400 million kilometers from Earth.
Today, the distance between the probe and the cometary core will be reduced to 100 km, the device will correct the trajectory and start its rotation around the four-kilometer “dirty snow”. Formally, this will not be an exit into orbit, since the comet’s gravity is not enough to hold Rosetta, but its trajectory provides for this condition. The probe will fly in front of the comet, so as not to fall into its tail, where dust can cause damage to the instruments. The device will begin a slow convergence with the core, rotating along the so-called. "Triangular arcs". Each turn in such an "orbit" will also be carried out by switching on the engines, but today there will be a final correction on the trajectory of convergence with the comet.
')
Switching on the engines will take 6 minutes 26 seconds and will begin at 13:00 Moscow time.
The distance to the probe causes a data transfer delay of 22 minutes. Due to difficulties in the transmission, we will not be able to watch the rendezvous video, but we will receive images from the navigation camera as soon as possible.
In the meantime, ESA experts have prepared a demo video that allows you to imagine what Rosetta's flight will look like around a comet.
This core model is already fresh, built on the basis of images taken in July.
The live broadcast will be provided on the ESA website . Although, I am afraid, at the key moment the site will not withstand the influx of viewers.
I am now at the COSPAR Scientific Assembly at Moscow State University, where about 2 thousand astronomers, planetologists and astrophysicists from around the world gathered. Here, the live broadcast will also be organized, so we will be able to receive information practically from the first hands. Moreover, here is the discoverer of comet Klim Churyumov. I can not imagine what feelings he is experiencing at this moment. Did he think about something like this 45 years ago when he examined a comet in pictures taken by Svetlana Gerasimenko?
Rosetta has two sets of cameras: Navcam Navcam, the animation with which opens this material. And the scientific camera OSIRIS, it has a more powerful lens (800 mm), which is about three times the power of Navcam.
Here is a snapshot of OSIRIS cometary nucleus from a distance of 1 thousand km.
If today we publish a snapshot of this camera, then we will see a comet at the highest resolution in the entire history of research.
At the moment, the speed of the comet and Rosetta is approximately 15.2 km / s (55 thousand km / h), but relative to each other, their speed does not exceed 1 m / s. This is significantly different from any other research probe encountered with comets. Earlier, the vehicles converged with comets on opposite trajectories from which their speeds were summed up and reached tens of kilometers per second. Those. There was no question of any close approximation - the dust from the comet's tail quickly incapacitated the apparatus or instruments.
This is told, in artistic form, by the cartoon from ESA:
Original
After 4 months, an equally important event will take place - the landing of the Philae descent vehicle on a comet, but the success of this unprecedented operation largely depends on today.
Keep for updates.
Read more about Rosetta here: habrahabr.ru/post/211444
UPD:
They showed pictures from OSIRIS, which are the most detailed image of the comet's surface, but so far only the screen:
Yes, we are in orbit!
We are waiting for new pictures from Rosetta.
Oh yeah!
Yes, these guys showed a bit of cosmic magic:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/232383/
All Articles