After more than two years circling the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Rosetta will drop to its icy surface and shut down, ending communications with Earth.
This time, ground controllers expect Rosetta's landing will stick -- unlike sidekick Philae's bouncing touchdown on Nov. 12, 2014. And unlike Philae, which ran through a two-day series of experiments after landing, Rosetta will not attempt any surface science.
Even though Rosetta will free-fall into the comet at the speed of a sedate walk, it is not designed to withstand the impact. Particularly vulnerable are Rosetta's 105-foot long solar array wings.
The European Space Agency is ending the mission because 67P is racing toward the outer solar system, making charging of Rosetta's batteries increasingly challenging. The spacecraft also has been subjected to the harsh radiation and extreme temperatures of space since launching in March 2004 and is unlikely to last too much longer.
Rosetta will take a last look around as it descends to the comet's surface. Scientists have selected a landing spot on the smaller lobe of the duck-shaped comet, a region that contains many large, active pits. Lumpy structures known as "goosebumps," line the pit walls. Scientists suspect they may be remnants of primordial mini-comets that melded together to form 67P during the solar system's early days.
Rosetta will take close-up images of the pits and collect data about the dust, gas and plasma around them, its final contribution to an ongoing quest to learn more about the origins of the solar system and the development of life on Earth, and perhaps elsewhere.
"Rosetta has been a great mission and it will be sad when its telecommunications signal will soon be lost," said University of Washington astronomer Donald Brownlee, who led NASA's Stardust comet sample return mission.
Read more at Discovery News
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