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| Philae tweets after 7 months,PHOTO CREDITS-ESA |
Cosmos has
always been a panorama of scenic beauty and a land of mystery for all of us
.But ever thought it as lost and found kit kept in school where children get
back their lost items, well this is what has happened this time, PHILAE
which was the first spacecraft to land on a comet has signaled home after seven
months of slumber.
The European Space Agency designed it and it was dropped to the surface of comet 67p by its
mothership Rosetta last November. The original objective of Philae was to land
on the surface of comet and study it before it becomes too active.The fear was
that emerging jets of gas may make the place too unstable and dangerous ,But
the misfortune aroused last November when the Lander bounced away from its intended
landing site which may have been a treasure trove of new information. It worked
only for 60 hours before its battery ran flat.
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| Structure of Philae lander,PHOTO CREDITS-ESA |
This
unexpected happening sunk the scientists’ heart and the fact that the Lander
was tucked safely beneath a cliff meant that it poised to witness what could be
at its most interesting time.
But this was
not the end ,The Lander awoke last week because the comet moved near the sun
which in turn helped the solar panels to regenerate and power up its system
including the transmitter. "We had another contact on Sunday night”, explained
Paolo Ferri , the head of operation at Esas mission control in Darmstadt Germany.
"That’s good obviously but we are still trying to understand why these contacts are short. Last week it was for 85 seconds and then for 10 seconds, it could have something to do with the orientation of Rosetta, it may not be pointing to the exactly right direction. But Rosetta is also 200 km from the comet and although the link should be sufficient it isn't super strong and if you don’t have the correct alignment you can lose the connection”
However speaking at Paris Airshow, Esas, soon to depart ,Director General Jean Jacques Dordain said the communication however brief should be taken as positive . ESA has sent commands to the lander's mother ship Rosetta, 180 kilometres (112 miles) from the comet, to improve communications between the spacecraft. The data transmitted also shows that the amount of sunlight available had increased.
"More
solar panels were illuminated; at the end of contact, four of Philae's panels
were receiving energy," said the DLR statement."The contact has
confirmed that Philae is doing very well," it added.
Well Philae now has lots of task down its sleeve, Philae probe could provide vital information on creation of the solar system and it could begin to unlock answers about the creation of the solar system with data collected from its landing debris.Professor Stan Cowley University of Leicester said that one early result that they were now waiting for was the measurements on the analysis of the debris cloud that was kicked up by the landing and one key result concerns the oxygen isotope ratios in the comet water were they the same as at Earth, and the Sun, or different.
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| Philae lander and mothership Rosetta, PHOTO CREDITS-ESA |
According to the University of Leicester, the material analysis of dust and ice from the initial impact of the probe has also been possible after the touchdown of the Lander.The mission objective is to learn more about the composition of the comet, which is a remnant from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago.For the first time in the history of space science a probe lander was lost and found again.let us hope that this ESAs sleeping beauty would provide all the necessary information and make it a success..
SOURCE-www.bbcnews.in
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