Rosetta satellite lands on comet today

By Janene Pieters on November 12, 2014 - 09:08
Rosetta_-_Philae_close-up
The Rosetta satellite - a close up of the Philae lander (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/DLR, CC-BY 3.0)

There is a good chance that, for the first time ever, a satellite will land on a comet today. Today around 10:00 a.m. the Rosetta satellite will release the so-called "lander" Philae to land on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The Rosetta is currently in orbit around the comet. It took about 10 years to get close to the comet, during which the satellite traveled 150 million kilometers.

It will take about 7 hours to actually land on the comet. The first images of the landing are expected around 18:00 p.m.

The European space agency ESTEC in Noordwijk helped wit the development and testing of the Rosetta satellite. The Leiden company Dutch Space supplied the solar panels for the Rosetta.

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