Philae landed on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko a year ago

The landing of Phila's probe on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko is one of the most significant events in the history of space exploration. Despite some setbacks, the probe still managed to gather a huge amount of information, and almost completely fulfill its mission. Now the European Space Agency has reconstructed the landing process, with the creation of animation, and quite detailed. By the way, exactly one year has passed since the landing.

The almost two-minute video shows the descent of the Phila module onto the comet, which lasted about seven hours, plus two hours of the probe trying to gain a foothold on the comet's surface. During these two hours, the module came into contact with the comet's core three times.

The video was created using all the landing data available to scientists. Scientists have calculated the trajectory of Philae for a long time, using the method of numerical simulation.
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The Rosetta mission added a lot of data to the general array of knowledge about comets, their evolution and composition. In particular, scientists have found that the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko was formed from two different comets that once came together. It happened at the dawn of the solar system, as a result of the collision of two objects. Initially, the connection occurred as a result of heating and partial melting of the original bodies, and then - as a result of cooling to form an “isthmus”.

In September, ESA scientists have already laid out one of the video models landing probe on a comet. Now the animation has turned out to be much more informative, showing the probe's behavior during landing, the places of impact with the comet's core and the final landing.



The task of the Philae probe was to study the comet, collect data, and transfer it to Earth. Accordingly, scientists are a step closer to understanding the origin of comets, which can “tell” a lot about the history of the solar system, because comets appeared at the very beginning of the system, billions of years ago.