Rosetta, the mother probe finds Philae lander disappeared. The scientists’ surprise – The Daily

Rosetta has found Philae . For almost two years he had gone missing lander dropped on the Comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko , and now he feared not to have more news. But last September 2 Osiris , the powerful lens mounted on the mother probe Rosetta, identified the small lander.

“Less than a month after the conclusion of the Rosetta mission, we are very happy to finally have pictures of Philae, and to observe it in such detail “: to rejoice in these words is Cecilia Tubiana , the limbs of Osiris team, and the first to seeing the images in question, discharged yesterday from Rosetta.

at the time of the sighting, the European space probe built by the Agency (ESA) orbiting at about 2.7 km away from the comet. The images are still clear enough to identify Philae, stuck in a dark crevice of the celestial body : is well clear recognize its main body and two of its three legs. The images also give Philae orientation test, suggesting also because, from the first moments following his landing, it transpired that complicated to establish communications with the lander.

Philae was detached from Rosetta probe 12 November 2014 , to land up on Churyumov-Gerasimenko: for the first time, a human artifact set foot on a comet. The actions you though were immediately revealed more difficult than expected : After three days of inspections, and some exciting pictures, the primary battery of Philae had been exhausted, and activities lander were interrupted. Since then, small signals from Philae had been captured by Rosetta only between June and July of 2015, thanks to the rapprochement of the comet to the sun, whose energy had temporarily reactivated the device.

Until now however, the precise location of Philae was not known . And just when the hope of a discovery was irreversibly diminishing, Rosetta he has surprised everyone. He also explained Patrick Martin , manager of ESA’s mission: “This remarkable discovery comes after a long and thorough search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It’s amazing that we were able to obtain images of its own in the last few hours. “

Rosetta will now perform its final descent to the comet on September 30 , to investigate closely the body heavenly, in the hope that the detailed images might reveal some secrets of its internal structure.

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