Sentences with phrase «on a comet»

For any spacecraft landing on a comet or asteroid, being able to slow down enough to arrive safely is critical.

Perhaps the biggest stone of all with all of the kilometers or miles behind it was the first ever landing of a probe on a comet hundreds of millions of kilometers away.

This is the first direct detection of exposed water ice on a comet.

The real surprise was a cluster of spots on the comet's nucleus that are three times darker than the rest of it, reflecting less than 1 % of light.

The researchers say it's the first time these substances have been detected on a comet.

There's nothing to dumping the water, sprinkling on your comet or baking soda mixed with lemon juice, and walking away.

Instead, interactions between water, particles streaming from the sun and grains of sand or rust on the comet's surface could generate the gas.

It should be more variable if this chemical reaction were generating oxygen on the comet, she says.

Instead, it may be generated by interactions of water, the solar wind and sand on the comet's surface.

The long exposure means we can see details on the comet's surface, along with jets of gas emerging as it heats up on its journey towards the sun.

These particles probably collected on the comet's surface after its previous close swing by the sun six - and - a-half years ago.

Not all scientists agree on the comet's fate.

It will be the first time that landing on a comet has ever been attempted.

Even more amazing, it plans to land a probe on a comet.

On 30 September, the European Space Agency probe landed on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko, in a spectacular finish to its two years spent in orbit around the space rock.

Scientists on the Rosetta mission had hoped they would detect vastly more compounds than we've found on comets before, but Philae's crash landing meant that it couldn't drill into the comet as planned, and had to rely on «sniffing» it instead.

The European Space Agency's probe, which made its historic landing on the comet on Wednesday, 12 November, has not moved from its landing spot and so its solar panels are not getting enough sunlight.

Following the successful landing of Rosetta mission's Philae on a comet in November, a UK - based team is now tinkering its way to capitalize on a resuscitated space exploration plan.

Miller and her colleagues are comparing the ring rain molecules with data on comet 67P, which the Rosetta spacecraft observed, to see how well they match up (SN: 11/11/17, p. 32).

In November that year, Rosetta's companion lander, Philae, made a bumpy touchdown and survived for a few days on the comet before being lost — though Rosetta did eventually find it again.

Methyl isocyanate has become a target for astrochemists ever since the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission detected the molecule on the comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko 2 years ago.

In November that year, Rosetta's companion lander Philae thrilled us with a bumpy touchdown, surviving just a few days on the comet before being lost — though Rosetta did eventually find it again.

ISON could also help the European Space Agency land on comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko next year.

An amino acid has been found on a comet for the first time, a new analysis of samples from NASA's Stardust mission reveals.

This is why the new generation of comets still has a low density and is rich in volatile substances — properties which have also been found on the comet Chury.

Other big news included the rise and fall of a claimed detection of gravitational waves, new findings about the history of early humans from analyses of DNA and the spectacular landing of the Rosetta spacecraft's robotic explorer Philae on comet 67P / Churyumov — Gerasimenko.

Image depicts the primary landing site on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko chosen for the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission.

Philae — the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet as part of the Rosetta mission — has gone silent again, and scientists fear that it may have stopped communicating for good.

«The release depends fully on the spacecraft, not on the comet,» Accomazzo said.

Comets, which formed far from the sun, have been proposed as an alternate way of delivering water to the Earth, but the relative amounts of different isotopes of hydrogen in the water on comets do not match up with Earth's.

We've put robots on both the moon and mars, but scientists have never tried to soft - land a robot on a comet — until now.

Such biomolecules or their precursors could have ridden to Earth on comets or asteroids to seed life on our planet — and possibly elsewhere.

The comet lander, lost since its tumultuous touchdown on the comet on November 12, 2014, turned up in images taken by the Rosetta orbiter on September 2.

Pinpointing lander's cold resting place on comet 67P / Churyumov — Gerasimenko will be a boon to researchers

Something similar could happen on comet 67P, they suggest.

Since January, temperatures on the comet have been too chilly for Philae's electronics; mission scientists stopped listening for radio signals from the lander in July.

But he is pleased to see that such molecules can indeed form on comets.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has spotted an amino acid on the comet it orbits — confirming that a ball of ice and dust can hold a major building block of life.

Growing activity on the comet in the form of jets of gas and dust also makes it increasingly risky for Rosetta to approach the surface.

Following an awkward landing in a heavily shadowed area on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko in November, Philae's batteries quickly exhausted themselves.

In recently published papers in the Nature Astronomy and Science journals, Pajola and colleagues explained how what he had seen was the first observation of a landslide on a comet.

See the fact file below for more information on comets or alternatively download our comprehensive worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

read the message from Cinzia Fantinati, operations manager for the European Space Agency (ESA) lander that had been hibernating in the shadows on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko since its bumpy touchdown on 12 November 2014.

Molecular oxygen — the kind we breathe — has never been seen on a comet before.

In the hours after the 11:03 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time touchdown, European scientists and engineers struggled to make sense of how stably the lander was resting on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko.

And on a gas - and - dust - spewing comet — an active body getting ever more active — there is always the possibility for a change in environment: Philae is not the only moving part on comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko.

The analyses made by the Rosetta orbiter will be complemented by the measurements performed on the comet by Philae's 10 instruments.