More than a year after he lost complete contact with Earth, Philae, the robot who first tried to study the components of a comet, was found. This was confirmed on Monday the European Space Agency (ESA), after the space probe Rosetta send a photograph taken with its high resolution camera. (Read the first time a comet will tread)
“I can hardly believe what I see with my own eyes! I eventually got this image of Philae, on September 2, 2.7 km away from the comet 67P “tweeted the account Rosetta spacecraft mission that will culminate next September 30, the day that cease communications.
Philae had managed to land on the Churiumov-Gerasimenko comet on November 12, 2014, after a historic voyage aboard the Rosetta area that lasted ten years. However, the maneuver to land on that element was too abrupt and fell in an area of rugged terrain, where it received little solar energy, key to its operation.
So after making observations for sixty hours Philae batteries were exhausted and went into hibernation. In June 2015 reawakened, but since July 9 of that year not reissued a sign of life.
As explained ESA, the captured image “shows the orientation of Philae, explaining which establish communications were so difficult. ” “With just one month to the end of the Rosetta mission, we are pleased
“we were beginning to think Philae would be lost forever. It’s amazing that we caught at the last moment, “said Patrick Martin, director of the space agency mission.
However, although Philae was found could not be started. For now, the comet where lies continue away from the Sun in its elliptical orbit to about 850 million kilometers away. Rosetta, meanwhile, continue to take high-resolution images in real time and make scientific measurements, before being held incommunicado September 30.
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