Three NASA instruments aboard the Rosetta spacecraft have begun experiments on a comet for the first time ever.
Since 2004 the Rosetta space craft has been roaming the celestial vacuum waiting for the events that will transpire over the coming months and years. In a flurry of activity that’s only just begun Rosetta will begin orbiting a comet, nest a lander on its surface and beam back countless gigabytes of data about one of the many outstanding mysteries of our solar system.
Consisting of an orbiter and a lander Rosetta is packed with scientific apparatuses meant to analyze the composition and evolution of comets. With its target comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, just coming into focus three of the craft’s instruments are already on alert and are in the process of delivering data.
The first instrument, Alice, is a UV spectrometer built to analyze what gases are present in the comet. The second tool in Rosetta’s arsenal is the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES). The IES will lend Rosetta the ability to measure charged particles as the comet nears the Sun and comes in contact with its solar winds. Finally, Rosetta is carrying the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO) which will measure the comet’s surface temperature and offer insights into how the comets coma and tail are formed.
“We are happy to be seeing some real zeroes and ones coming down from our instruments, and cannot wait to figure out what they are telling us,” said Claudia Alexander, Rosetta’s U.S. project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “Never before has a spacecraft pulled up and parked next to a comet. That is what Rosetta will do, and we are delighted to play a part in such a historic mission of exploration.”
Though Rosetta is still some 300,000 miles away from its target, NASA and its international partners aren’t wasting any time. Over the next few months Rosetta will give researchers reams of data to pour over, and that’s all before the craft’s lander touches down in November. With its mission slated to last until December of 2015, there is every likelihood that by 2016 researchers will have the most complete view of comets the world has ever known.
Image Courtesy of NASA