Rosetta and Philae Read and find out. What is a comet? Where did scientists send the Rosetta space craft? What was Philae? What happened?
No person has ever been on a comet. Comets are lumps of cosmic ice and rock, whizzing around in the universe. Sometimes they hit the Earth, but when they hit the Earth they break up into little tiny bits. No person has ever been on a comet, but a small landing craft has. The landing craft came from the space craft Rosetta. How did it happen? Scientists sent the Rosetta space craft to find out what a comet was like. After travelling for 10 long years, Rosetta was 100 kilometers from the surface of Comet 67P. It went into orbit around the comet and took a lot of photographs which it sent back to Earth. But that was not Rosetta’s main task. Its main task was to find the perfect landing place for the landing craft, which was called Philae. Philae was the size of a washing machine. It landed onto the comet on Nov 12, 2014 and for two days sent a lot of scientific information back to earth. Then disaster struck and it stopped transmitting! But scientists have learned a lot of new things about comets thanks to Rosetta and Philae.
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Module 4
