Goodbye, Rosetta!

This Friday, September 30, the Rosetta spacecraft will crash into the comet it has been studying for the past two years, bringing the fantastic mission to a close. Goodbye Rosetta, and thanks for all the beautiful images and science! Read on to see some of Rosetta's greatest hits, and how the mission will end. 

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, backlit by the Sun. Rosetta was 204 miles from the comet.

ESA / Rosetta / Navcam

In 2014, the European Space Agency (ESA) did something incredible - their Rosetta mission fell into orbit around a comet. And if that wasn't impressive enough, they then LANDED A ROBOT on it. 

Rosetta and Comet 67P. Image Credit

Comet 67P is less than 3 miles in diameter, so it doesn't have very much gravity to help Rosetta fall into orbit. The engineers had to very carefully plan Rosetta's trajectory so that it would slow down and fall into place right next to the comet. The spacecraft flew more than 10 years before it reached its destination! 

Comet 67P as it approached the Sun and became more active. Image Credit

In November of 2014, ESA landed a little robot, Philae, on the comet. Unfortunately, the lander bounced three times, and didn't land in a spot where its solar panels could be charged. It was able to complete 80% of its science objectives, but it stopped responding in 2015. Recently, ESA found Philae, jammed into a rock on the comet. 

Poor little Philae, stuck sideways on the comet. Image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA; context: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0

Read more about Philae and the landing here: HUMANS landed a ROBOT on a COMET!!!

Rosetta continued to orbit, and took incredible pictures of Comet 67P.

Image Credit

A close up view of the comet. Image Credit

Image Credit

You can see an abundance of gorgeous images from the Rosetta mission at its Flickr page.

This year, Rosetta has been getting closer and closer to the comet, taking high resolution images. 

Taken by Rosetta from a distance of 2.8 miles from the comet's center.

ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

 

Taken from a distance of 2.5 miles from the comet's center.

ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

Rosetta has been getting farther and farther away from the Sun as it orbits its comet. Soon it will be too far away to maintain power from its solar panels. Before Rosetta entered orbit around Comet 67P, at its farthest point from the Sun it was put into hibernation to survive the cold and dark. This time, it will be much farther away than before, and mission planners do not think its heaters would have enough power to keep it warm enough to survive. It has been flying for 12 years, and has performed its mission superbly. Mission planners decided the best course of action would be to end the mission with a planned descent to the comet surface. 

Today, September 29, a rocket burn will cancel out the orbital motion of the spacecraft, initiating a free fall towards the comet. Rosetta will impact the comet at a speed of 35 inches per second (about walking pace) at about 8:20 am central time on September 30. We will know when it impacts, because radio connection with Earth will be cut off. 

Mission planners intend to land Rosetta between Ma'at_02 and Ma'at_03. ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

Mission planners picked the landing site carefully, because Rosetta will be able to observe it in high resolution as it descends. It will be targeting the Ma'at region, a flat area near pits that Rosetta has traced dust jets back to. They hope to observe the "goosebump" structures in the wall of the pit that they think may show how the comet formed by accretion of smaller bodies. Scientists will be able to gather information on the dust, gas, and plasma environment close to the pits, which will help them understand their connection to the comet's observed activity. A different goosebumb area is shown in the image below. 

Close-up of a curious surface texture nicknamed ‘goosebumps’.

ESA / Rosetta / DLR / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

Late in the night tonight, ESA will be sharing some of the final descent images via ESA’s Space in Images and on Twitter via @ESA_Rosetta. There will be an end of mission update on September 30 at 7:30 am central time streamed live via rosetta.esa.int, https://livestream.com/ESA/rosettagrandfinale and ESA's Facebook page featuring status updates from mission controllers live from ESA’s European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany. 

I will be very sad to see the mission end, but that is outweighed by how grateful I have been to watch this mission. We have learned so much about comets from Rosetta, and it is a tremendous human achievement to orbit and land on such a small body. Missions such as Rosetta are reminders of the great things we humans can achieve when we work together.

Here is a cute cartoon summarizing the end of the mission from ESA. You can find all of these videos on ESA's Youtube channel.

I hope you'll follow along with Rosetta in its final days! You can always learn the latest news from space at the Dome Planetarium at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for daily updates!