Daily Image
12-11-2014
Philae's landing - today, live in the auditorium!
| Submitter: | Michael Garrett |
| Description: | Today (12 November 2014) the Philae spacecraft will attempt a landing on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko - the image above shows the prime landing site, "Agilkia" and landing timeline. The landing phase window will open at 1622 CET with the exact time of contact being dependant on the release and landing trajectory flown by the mothership, Rosetta. The best estimate is that touchdown will occur around 1700 CET +/- 15 minutes - this also takes into account the 28 minute light travel time of the radio signal from the spacecraft to Earth. If the timing holds up, we plan to start streaming a live video feed from ESOC in the van der Hulst auditorium, starting sometime in the mid-afternoon as Philae makes its final approach. The first panoramic images from the surface are expected at ESOC around 1800 CET. The probe is expected to continue to operate until March 2015 - at that point the comet will be much closer to the sun, and the probe will be threatened by rising temperatures and increasing activity on the comet's surface. Meanwhile the orbiting Rosetta spacecraft will continue to monitor the comet all the way through perihelion (August 2015), giving us a remarkable ring-side seat in which to view the various outgassing processes. An animation of today's landing is available at: http://youtu.be/szKZ77MbF9Q |
| Copyright: | ESA / ASTRON |
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