Friday, 30 September 2016

Rosetta crashes into comet, marking mission termination

Rendering of Rosetta impacting comet 67P

After 12 years, ESA's Rosetta deep-space probe ended its mission today as it made a controlled impact on the Ma'at region of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. According to mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, the unmanned orbiter struck the surface at 11:20 GMT (1:20 pm CEST) after spending two years studying the comet as it swung round the Sun before heading back into the outer Solar System. Because Rosetta is 720 million km (447 million mi) from Earth, the landing was confirmed about 40 minutes after it took place, and the time reflects the moment of reception.

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