Tomorrow, about 3:35 am (Colombian time), world scientists cross your fingers for a ship, 500 million miles from Earth, can settle for the first Once Upon a comet , 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and thus make a new feat in the space race. (See also: What do scientists hope to find the comet ‘ECI’ ?)
From achieve this would be the seventh successful ‘landing’ of an agency Space on Earth, following the arrivals of Venus, Mars, Moon, Titan (Saturn’s largest moon) and the asteroid 433 Eros and Itokawa. (Also read: Key 10-year Rosetta Mission )
The wait is agonizing: seven hours of decline of Philae module that after pulling out of the Rosetta probe, r ecorra 22.5 kilometers (0.18 meters per second) to be anchored in an area called comet Agilkia .
A move that has been described as high risk by experts, as well as that will be held for the first time, the comet’s surface, the size of the island of Providence, could play a trick on their composition and being full of rocks and cracks.
The Colombian Juan Diego Soler astrophysicist, a member of the Institute of Space Astrophysics in Paris (France), says it is a unique opportunity. There is no plan B. “It’s comparable to the first man on the Moon and the arrival of the first probe to Mars” said.
why , like thousands of researchers around the world, tomorrow will be from the Institute following step by step the mission, which began in March 2004 when Rosetta was sent in the Ariane 5 rocket into space from Kourou, French Guiana.
To achieve faster comet, Rosetta used the gravity fields of the Earth and Mars. So trodden four orbits around the sun and approached three times to Earth and Mars once, that propelled, tasks that took him seven years.
When I got the probe went into a state of hibernation between May 2011 and January this year, a sort of ‘coma’ that was awakened to resume his mission to reach the comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which leads the name of two Ukrainian astronomers who discovered it in 1969, accompanied by 67P, identifying him as the number 67 to be discovered.
On August 6 began to make history by reaching the orbit of this comet, something never before achieved. Since then, research has focused on the appropriate place to send the module Philae point feat to be achieved tomorrow. “ Rosetta has to approach almost to go at the same speed of the comet. Then (about 22.5 km away) will release Philae and as this melts away the stick propellants comet, as there is no gravity, “Soler said.
The first announcement to receive researchers at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt (Germany), will be the confirmation that ‘grabbed’ the comet, for which it will deploy harpoons to keep you firmly on the ground.
Rosetta will receive information via two antennas that connect to Philae and the data will be transmitted to Earth via satellites. This and all the signals you send Philae take 28 minutes to reach the Earth, which will hold more than one ingredient. Another early task will be to take a panoramic photo, which also take their weight arrive.
“The technical achievement is enough. You will learn more about comets with the arrival of Philae, that all that is known so far in the history of these . Besides, direct data have, “says astrophysicist Colombia.
The secrets behind comets are still unknown to science. However, there is a starting point in that research will focus on: trying to establish if water and organic material that compose relate to materials on Earth, which could shed light on whether the water in the Kites originated oceans.
To study, has 11 science instruments including a camera sensitive to visible and infrared light, a drill to extract samples and spectrometer to determine its composition.
These bodies (comets), which are just balls of ice and interstellar dust, are in one place in the solar system beyond the planet Neptune where sunlight is only glare. Occasionally Soler adds closeness upsets the balance of Neptune, and one of these chunks of rock and ice out of its stable orbit and plunges towards the Sun, as is the case of 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, moving at more than 50 times the speed of a jetliner.
“The Rosetta probe is like a hawk flying by the largest airplane of a Colombian airline “Soler said.
S in matter what happens tomorrow, the mission will last until late 2015 or early 2016 , during which time Philae and Rosetta will accompany the comet on its journey towards the sun. That will reveal details of how it changes your life, as it approaches the sun.
Nicolas Gutierrez Congote
Editor of TIME
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