Rosetta
I just want to say that right at this moment, as I’m writing this, a space probe has just travelled a total of 6 billion kilometers so it can rendezvous with 4.5 billion year old comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, one of the remaining ancient building blocks of our solar system, and the probe is right now entering orbit around it as the first man made object ever to orbit a comet. Some time after completing the orbital maneuvers it will release a lander (Philae) which will touch down on the surface of the comet as the first ever man made object to land on a comet. The research gleaned from Rosetta and it’s companion Philae will help shed even further light on the origins of the solar system and how, eventually, planet Earth came to be.
And we can all follow all of these historical achievements in real time on the internet. Isn’t this at least a little bit cool?
(Picture of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as the Rosetta probe was approaching it, some 405 million kilometers from Earth. Photo courtesy of ESA.)
