Europe’s comet probe Rosetta ends 12-year mission

After 12 years of hurtling through space in pursuit of a comet, the Rosetta probe ended its mission with a slow-motion crash onto the icy surface of the alien world it was sent out to study.

Europe’s comet probe Rosetta ends 12-year mission

Mission controllers lost contact with the probe, as expected, after it hit the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, said the European Space Agency.

“Farewell Rosetta, you’ve done the job,” said mission manager Patrick Martin. “That is space science at its best.”

ESA chief Jan Woerner called the €1.4bn mission a success. Aside from sending a lander onto the surface of comet 67P in November 2014 — a cosmic first — the Rosetta mission has collected vast amounts of data that researchers will spend many years analysing.

Flight director Andrea Accomazzo in the European Space Agency control room yesterday.
Flight director Andrea Accomazzo in the European Space Agency control room yesterday.

Scientists have already heralded several discoveries from the mission that offer new insights into the formation of the solar system and the origins of life on Earth.

Spectacular images taken by the orbiter and its comet lander revealed a desert-like landscape on the comet with wide, featureless regions but also high cliffs and sinkholes that were over 100m across.

The shape of 67P — two orbs connected by a “neck” that have been likened to a giant rubber duck — surprised scientists when Rosetta first got up close. Researchers now believe the orbs formed independently and later merged into one.

One of the crucial differences between Rosetta and previous missions was the probe’s ability to study one comet for an extended period of time. While Deep Impact fired a projectile into comet Tempel 1 back in 2005 and studied the crater for 15 minutes, Rosetta spent 786 days flying alongside 67P, observing its evolution across several “seasons” as it raced towards and then away from the sun.

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