Philae lander on a comet landed in November last year. His journey to comet 67P lasted 10 years, and after landing only worked about 60 hours – as much as allowed his batteries. Although it has collected a lot of data!
It turns out that for 60 hours of Philae was able to send a lot of information about his comet. The ESA was revealed four facts that we learned through your sent by the lander.
First of all – the original landing was soft as sand. Most likely covered by dust. Therefore, the device is not driven into the surface, it bounced and was rejected in the far exactly undetermined.
We also know that not all regions of the comet are equally soft. In some dust layer may be several tens of centimeters, but the other surface is a material having a hardness of rock. This is not surprising: since long been suspected that comets are clusters of rocks, ice and dust.
It also found that the structure of the comet’s like a sponge: it is in the middle of the empty space. We know this thanks to radio waves that Philae “missed” by the comet 67P. Data shows that up to 85 percent. the interior of the comet can be left blank.
The comet is rich in organic materials. Philae found 16 different organic compounds, including four that had never been discovered comets. This supports the hypothesis that organic compounds could appear on Earth just because comets.
Perhaps the Philae not yet said the last word. In June this year lander woke up from hibernation, but for now Rosetta is not able to establish a stable connection with its lander. Scientists do not give up. They hope that manage to combine in August, when the comet 67P will be closest to the Sun.
(ew / PopSci)
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