Rosetta received pictures of Philae probe touchdown points and a photo of the probe itself

    Credit: ESA / Rosetta / MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS / UPD / LAM / IAA / SSO / INTA / UPM / DASP / IDA

    The problem of the landing of the now asleep Philae probe on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been discussed many times in various media. Indeed, the process of landing the probe on an object with a low level of gravity is technically very complicated. Philae

    did not escape the problem . After the first landing, the probe rose above the surface of the comet, descended again, and rose again. The third landing was not very successful, which has already been reported on Geektimes. Now it turned out that one of Rosetta's photo tools was able to remove the landing of the probe.

    The probe’s landing was captured by the OSIRIS camera from the interplanetary station when it was 17.5 kilometers from the surface of the comet. The resolution of the images in this case is 28 centimeters per pixel.

    The preview image shows the various moments of the probe landing, and below is a series of individual photos in chronological order (this is the maximum resolution, there are no better quality photos). The beginning is 15:43 GMT. The project team is confident that combining CONSERT information with OSIRIS and navcam images, as well as information from other tools, will provide accurate data on the current location of the probe.



    The final position of the probe has not yet been clarified, only the approximate position of the probe is known. As you know, now Philae has fallen asleep, but scientists hope that as the comet approaches the Sun, the probe will be able to get an amount of energy sufficient for the further operation of the device.

    At the moment, the probe has completed about 85% of all planned work, so the mission can be considered quite successful.

    Via esa

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