Rosetta Mission Update – Comets may not be what we thought
Image credit: TW
The Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Perhaps the strangest solar system object ever observed up close in the course of the space age. It was the target of the Rosetta probe, whose 10-year journey began in March 2004, under the sponsorship of the European Space Agency.
The probe is now orbiting the nucleus of 67P, and investigators hope to confirm the comet’s link to the very origins of our solar system. In this brief overview of the Rosetta Mission, David Talbott begins a series of reports on the continuing surprises facing comet theorists.
Video courtesy of The Thunderbolts Project
Executive Producer: Gerald Simonson
Script and Narration: David Talbott
Chief Science Advisor: Wal Thornhill
Animation and Editing: Brian Talbott
Executive Assistant: Susan Schirott
Music: Softsound (Nancy Holt)
Watch the first video in a series of Rosetta Mission Updates with Wal Thornhill and Dave Talbott here.
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This isn’t about comet exploration. At the very least it’s a dry-run for future asteroid deflection. And what’s with the Egyptian mythic names: Rosetta (ancient Egyptian stele), Philae (Isis Temple): the upcoming Osiris-Rex (god of the afterlife), Bennu (from the Egyptian Creation Myth)..?