The Rosetta probe's 10-year space chase ended on Aug. 6 with the European Space Agency's billion-euros spacecraft coming within 100 kilometers of a comet. It will now start analyzing the large ball of ice and dust for the first time in the history of space exploration.
The probe is entering an even more ambitious phase, making a triangular orbit around the comet to study its terrain and gravitational pull for a possible landing this November.
"One of the consequences of this crazy shape is firstly finding a big enough area to land in, and the comet of course it's an active body, it's putting out gas, it's putting out dust and we're flying into that, not at high speed, it's not going to endangered the spacecraft but it's another factor that we have to consider," said Mark McCaughrean, Senior Science Advisor at the European Space Agency in a statement. "So all in all it's going to be a big challenge and we're up for it."
ESA is ultimately looking to unlock the secrets of the Solar System and figure out the role comets played in the evolution of the universe and Earth.
Rosetta and the comet are now traveling 34,000 miles an hour, locked in a common orbit around the sun, approximately 405 million kilometers from Earth, according to the ESA.
The comet's 6 ½ year-orbit will eventually take it beyond Jupiter, and Rosetta will accompany it for a year during that journey, according to an ESA press release.
The spacecraft will accomplish two other firsts: landing a probe on a comet's surface and then follow a comet around the sun.
"Arriving at the comet is really only just the beginning of an even bigger adventure, with greater challenges still to come as we learn how to operate in this unchartered environment, start to orbit and, eventually, land," said Sylvain Lodiot, ESA's Rosetta spacecraft operations manager, according to the release.
Up to five possible landing sites will be identified by late August, before the primary site is identified in mid-September. The researchers hope to release a small lander onto the icy nucleus sometime this November.
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