#TinkerBellandFriends #Klara #Rosetta #Tinkerbell
I drew tinkerbell and her friends! ☺😊😆

Confirmation: ESA's #Rosetta probe has detected a suite of #organic compounds that constitute the building blocks of life as we know it. Scientists have theorized for decades that these building blocks of life were delivered to the primordial #Earth via #comets and #asteroids as our planet began to cool following its molten formation.

After years of inconclusive observations in prior experiments, Rosetta has now definitively determined that these organic compounds do in fact exist on comets. (However, this does not definitively mean that the building blocks of life had to have arrived here via comets, just that it's plausible to assume as much)

This discovery could have implications for the existence of life elsewhere in the cosmos.

#OriginsofLife #OrganicCompounds #BuildingBlocks #Comet67p #ESA #SearchForLife

Rosetta Finds Key Building Blocks of life in Comet Dust

"The amino acid glycine, one of the key building blocks of life as we know it, has been found in the "fuzzy atmosphere" of comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko"

( via - http://goo.gl/cV73QW ) 💫

#ScienceSunday   #Rosetta   #Philae   #Comet   #Science  

Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years. They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. #Rosetta #67P  

Checking in with comet #67P . Here's an image from a distance of just 7 km taken on 21 May by the #OSIRIS camera aboard #Rosetta .

More info here: https://planetgate.mps.mpg.de/Image_of_the_Day/public/OSIRIS_IofD_2016-05-23.html

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

Philae comet lander facing eternal hibernation [Video] | ESA Rosetta
15 months after Philae made its historic landing on a comet, its legacy is enormous even if Rosetta’s lander is facing eternal hibernation. Mission teams are now looking ahead to the grand finale: making a controlled impact of the Rosetta orbiter on the comet next September. Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014 and Philae was delivered to the surface on November 12. After touching down Philae bounced several times and completed 80% of its planned first science sequence before falling into hibernation.  

A contact was made with the lander on June 13 and intermittent contacts were made up to July 9. However the results of Philae mission are unique and complement all the science harvested by the orbiter Rosetta who is continuing its quest before being sent directly to the surface of 69P late September.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/VoBOqPh4et0

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Duration: 4 minutes, 30 seconds
Release Date: February 12, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+CNES 
+NASA Solar System Exploration 
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

#ESA #Space #Astronomy #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Orbit #Philae #Lander #Comet67P #SolarSystem #Geoscience #Ice #Organic #Molecules #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #Science
#Cosmos #Universe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #CNES #History #Video #HD

Comet 67P | Rosetta Spacecraft | European Space Agency
The Rosetta spacecraft continues to circle and map Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Crossing the inner Solar System for ten years to reach the vicinity of the comet in 2014, the robotic spacecraft continues to image the unusual double-lobed comet nucleus. This image, taken one year ago, shows dust and gas escaping from the comet's nucleus. Although appearing bright here, the comet's surface reflects only about four percent of impinging visible light, making it as dark as coal. Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko spans about four kilometers in length and has a surface gravity so low that an astronaut could jump off of it. With Rosetta in tow, Comet 67P passed its closest to the Sun last year and is now headed back to the furthest point—just past the orbit of Jupiter.

Image Credit & Licence: ESA, Rosetta, NAVCAM

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) 

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #Rosetta
#Spacecraft #NAVCAM #Comet67P #Churyumov #Gerasimenko
#SolarSystem #JPL #Cosmos #Universe #APoD

Comet 67P Up-close | March 19, 2016 | ESA Rosetta Mission
Another impressive image of Comet 67P from a distance of 12km, captured by Rosetta OSIRIS camera on March 19, 2016.
 
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Release Date: March 22, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center  
+NASA Solar System Exploration 

#ESA #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Comet67P #Churyumov
#Gerasimenko #Science #OSIRIS #SolarSystem #Exploration
#Cosmos #Universe #Europe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #STEM #Education

Comet 67P Close-up: Distance 30 km | ESA's Rosetta Mission
Checking in with Comet 67P, seen here from a distance of 30 km by Rosetta's OSIRIS camera on April 23, 2016.

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

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+NASA Solar System Exploration 

#ESA #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Comet67P #Churyumov
#Gerasimenko #Science #OSIRIS #SolarSystem #Exploration
#Cosmos #Universe #Europe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #STEM #Education

View of Comet 67P: Jan. 23, 2016 | ESA Rosetta Mission
OSIRIS narrow-angle camera image taken on January 23, 2016, when Rosetta was 75.1 km from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The scale is 1.37 m/pixel.
 
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #Rosetta  
#Spacecraft #OSIRIS #Comet67P #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #SolarSystem #JPL #Cosmos #Universe

Comet relay | European Space Agency
In November 2014, ESA’s Rosetta mission soft-landed its Philae probe on a comet—the first time that such an extraordinary feat had been achieved.

This image shows the 35 m-diameter deep-space tracking station at Malargüe, Argentina, during Philae’s touchdown that day. At the time of this photo, the station was receiving data from the lander, relayed via the Rosetta comet orbiter, and was in turn relaying the information to the mission control team at ESA’s control center in Darmstadt, Germany.

Credit: ESA–D. Pazos
Image Date: November 11, 2014

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) 

#ESA #Comet #Lander #Philae #Rosetta #DLR #Spacecraft
#Comet67P #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #Science #Europe
#Cosmos #Universe #Germany #Deutschland #Malargüe #Argentina #DeepTracking #Nework #Communications #SolarSystem

Over the weekend, the #Rosetta spacecraft experienced a ‘safe mode’ event 5 km from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Contact with the spacecraft has since been recovered and the mission teams are working to resume normal operations.

Rosetta detected the ingredients for life travelling through space on comet 67P
Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes.

Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet – fuelling the debate on their role in the origin of Earth’s water.

But new results reveal that comets nevertheless had the potential to deliver ingredients critical to establish life as we know it.

Source & further reading:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Rosetta_s_comet_contains_ingredients_for_life

#esa   #rosetta   #67P   #space   #research  

Rosetta’s comet contains ingredients for life | ESA
May 27, 2016: Ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life on Earth have been discovered at the comet that ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has been probing for almost two years.

They include the amino acid glycine, which is commonly found in proteins, and phosphorus, a key component of DNA and cell membranes.

Scientists have long debated the important possibility that water and organic molecules were brought by asteroids and comets to the young Earth after it cooled following its formation, providing some of the key building blocks for the emergence of life.

While some comets and asteroids are already known to have water with a composition like that of Earth’s oceans, Rosetta found a significant difference at its comet—fueling the debate on their role in the origin of Earth’s water.

But new results reveal that comets nevertheless had the potential to deliver ingredients critical to establish life as we know it.

Amino acids are biologically important organic compounds containing carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, and form the basis of proteins.

Hints of the simplest amino acid, glycine, were found in samples returned to Earth in 2006 from Comet Wild-2 by NASA’s Stardust mission. However, possible terrestrial contamination of the dust samples made the analysis extremely difficult.

Now, Rosetta has made direct, repeated detections of glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet.

“This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet,” says Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument that made the measurements, and lead author of the paper published in Science Advances today.

“At the same time, we also detected certain other organic molecules that can be precursors to glycine, hinting at the possible ways in which it may have formed.”

The measurements were made before the comet reached its closest point to the Sun—perihelion—in August 2015 in its 6.5 year orbit.

The first detection was made in October 2014 while Rosetta was just 10 km from the comet. The next occasion was during a flyby in March 2015, when it was 30–15 km from the nucleus.

Glycine was also seen on other occasions associated with outbursts from the comet in the month leading up to perihelion, when Rosetta was more than 200 km from the nucleus but surrounded by a lot of dust.

“We see a strong link between glycine and dust, suggesting that it is probably released perhaps with other volatiles from the icy mantles of the dust grains once they have warmed up in the coma,” says Kathrin.

Glycine turns into gas only when it reaches temperatures just below 150°C, meaning that usually little is released from the comet’s surface or subsurface because of the low temperatures. This accounts for the fact that Rosetta does not always detect it.

“Glycine is the only amino acid that is known to be able to form without liquid water, and the fact we see it with the precursor molecules and dust suggests it is formed within interstellar icy dust grains or by the ultraviolet irradiation of ice, before becoming bound up and conserved in the comet for billions of years,” adds Kathrin.

Another exciting detection made by Rosetta and described in the paper is of phosphorus, a key element in all known living organisms. For example, it is found in the structural framework of DNA and in cell membranes, and it is used in transporting chemical energy within cells for metabolism.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty regarding the chemistry on early Earth and there is of course a huge evolutionary gap to fill between the delivery of these ingredients via cometary impacts and life taking hold,” says co-author Hervé Cottin.

“But the important point is that comets have not really changed in 4.5 billion years: they grant us direct access to some of the ingredients that likely ended up in the prebiotic soup that eventually resulted in the origin of life on Earth.”

“The multitude of organic molecules already identified by Rosetta, now joined by the exciting confirmation of fundamental ingredients like glycine and phosphorous, confirms our idea that comets have the potential to deliver key molecules for prebiotic chemistry,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist.

“Demonstrating that comets are reservoirs of primitive material in the Solar System and vessels that could have transported these vital ingredients to Earth, is one of the key goals of the Rosetta mission, and we are delighted with this result.”

Notes for Editors

“Prebiotic chemicals—amino acid and phosphorus—in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko”, by K. Altwegg et al is published in the journal Science Advances.

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)/Rosetta
Release Date: May 27, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) 

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #AminoAcids #Glycine #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Comet67P #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #SolarSystem #JPL #Cosmos #Universe #STEM #Education #Infographic

Here's another stunning close-up (from a distance of 7km) of comet #67P taken on 25 May by #Rosetta #OSIRIS camera.   

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

Philae comet lander facing eternal hibernation | ESA Rosetta
Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from which it is unlikely to recover. Rosetta, which continues its scientific investigations at the comet until September before its own comet-landing finale, has in recent months been balancing science observations with flying dedicated trajectories optimised to listen out for Philae. But the lander has remained silent since July 9, 2015.

“The chances for Philae to contact our team at our lander control centre are unfortunately getting close to zero,” says Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager at the German Aerospace Center, DLR. “We are not sending commands any more and it would be very surprising if we were to receive a signal again.”
 
Philae’s team of expert engineers and scientists at the German, French and Italian space centres and across Europe have carried out extensive investigations to try to understand the status of the lander, piecing together clues since it completed its first set of scientific activities after its historic landing on November 12, 2014.

A story with incredible twists and turns unfolded on that day. In addition to a faulty thruster, Philae also failed to fire its harpoons and lock itself onto the surface of the comet after its seven-hour descent, bouncing from its initial touchdown point at Agilkia, to a new landing site, Abydos, over 1 km away. The precise location of the lander has yet to be confirmed in high-resolution images.

A reconstruction of the flight of the lander suggested that it made contact with the comet four times during its two-hour additional flight across the small comet lobe. After bouncing from Agilkia it grazed the rim of the Hatmehit depression, bounced again, and then finally settled on the surface at Abydos.

 Even after this unplanned excursion, the lander was still able to make an impressive array of science measurements, with some even as it was flying above the surface after the first bounce.

Once the lander had made its final touchdown, science and operations teams worked around the clock to adapt the experiments to make the most of the unanticipated situation. About 80% of its initial planned scientific activities were completed.

In the 64 hours following its separation from Rosetta, Philae took detailed images of the comet from above and on the surface, sniffed out organic compounds, and profiled the local environment and surface properties of the comet, providing revolutionary insights into this fascinating world.

But with insufficient sunlight falling on Philae’s new home to charge its secondary batteries, the race was on to collect and transmit the data to Rosetta and across 510 million kilometers of space back to Earth before the lander’s primary battery was exhausted as expected. Thus, on the evening of November 14–15, 2014, Philae fell into hibernation.

As the comet and the spacecraft moved closer to the Sun ahead of perihelion on August 13, 2015—the closest point to the Sun along its orbit—there were hopes that Philae would wake up again.

Estimates of the thermal conditions at the landing site suggested that the lander might receive enough sunlight to start warming up to the minimum –45ºC required for it to operate on the surface even by the end of March 2015.

It is worth noting that if Philae had remained at its original landing site of Agilkia, it would have likely overheated by March, ending any further operations.

On June 13, 2015, the lander finally hailed the orbiting Rosetta and subsequently transmitted housekeeping telemetry, including information from its thermal, power and computer subsystems.

Subsequent analysis of the data indicated that the lander had in fact already woken up on April 26, 2015, but had been unable to send any signals until June 13.
 
The fact that the lander had survived the multiple impacts on November 12 and then unfavourable environmental conditions, greatly exceeding the specifications of its various electronic components, was quite remarkable.

After June 13, Philae made a further seven intermittent contacts with Rosetta in the following weeks, with the last coming on July 9. However, the communications links that were established were too short and unstable to enable any scientific measurements to be commanded.

Despite the improved thermal conditions, with temperatures inside Philae reaching 0ºC, no further contacts were made as the comet approached perihelion in August.

However, the months around perihelion are also the comet’s most active. With increased levels of outflowing gas and dust, conditions were too challenging for Rosetta to operate safely close enough to the comet and within the 200 km where the signals had previously been detected from Philae.

In more recent months, the comet’s activity has subsided enough to make it possible to approach the nucleus again safely—this week the spacecraft reached around 45 km—and Rosetta has made repeated passes over Abydos.

No signal has been received, however. Attempts to send commands ‘in the blind’ to trigger a response from Philae have also not produced any results.

The mission engineers think that failures of Philae’s transmitters and receivers are the most likely explanation for the irregular contacts last year, followed by continued silence into this year.

Another difficulty that Philae may be facing is dust covering its solar panels, ejected by the comet during the active perihelion months, preventing the lander from powering up.

Also, the attitude and even location of Philae may have changed since November 2014 owing to cometary activity, meaning that the direction in which its antenna is sending signals to Rosetta is not as predicted, affecting the expected communication window.

“The comet’s level of activity is now decreasing, allowing Rosetta to safely and gradually reduce its distance to the comet again,” says Sylvain Lodiot, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft operations manager.

“Eventually we will be able to fly in ‘bound orbits’ again, approaching to within 10–20 km—and even closer in the final stages of the mission—putting us in a position to fly above Abydos close enough to obtain dedicated high-resolution images to finally locate Philae and understand its attitude and orientation.”

“Determining Philae’s location would also allow us to better understand the context of the incredible in situ measurements already collected, enabling us to extract even more valuable science from the data,” says Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist.

“Philae is the cherry on the cake of the Rosetta mission, and we are eager to see just where the cherry really is!”

At the same time, Rosetta, Philae and the comet are heading back out towards the outer Solar System again. They have crossed the orbit of Mars and are now some 350 million km from the Sun. According to predictions, the temperatures should be falling far below those at which Philae is expected to be able to operate.

Nevertheless, while hopes of making contact again with Philae dwindle, Rosetta will continue to listen for signals from the lander as it flies alongside the comet ahead of its own comet landing in September.

“We would be very surprised to hear from Philae again after so long, but we will keep Rosetta’s listening channel on until it is no longer possible due to power constraints as we move ever further from the Sun towards the end of the mission,” says Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta mission manager.

“Philae has been a tremendous challenge and for the lander teams to have achieved the science results that they have in the unexpected and difficult circumstances is something we can all be proud of.

“The combined achievements of Rosetta and Philae, rendezvousing with and landing on a comet, are historic high points in space exploration.”

Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Release Date: February 12, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+CNES 
+NASA Solar System Exploration 
+NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory 

#ESA #Space #Astronomy #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Orbit #Philae #Lander #Comet67P #SolarSystem #Geoscience #Ice #Organic #Molecules #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #Science #Cosmos #Universe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #CNES #History

Comet 67P's big lobe | European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission
This is a unique view of Comet 67P taken by the OSIRIS wide angle camera aboard Rosetta during a flyby over the weekend of April 9th and 10th.

67P is seen here from a distance of 30 km, with the big lobe in front and with Rosetta positioned almost exactly between sun and comet. This unique observing geometry reveals optical characteristics of the surface that cannot be seen otherwise.

Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Release Date: April 12, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+NASA Solar System Exploration 

#ESA #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Comet67P #Churyumov
#Gerasimenko #Science #OSIRIS #SolarSystem #Exploration
#Cosmos #Universe #Europe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #STEM #Education

EXTENDED: No love for Rosetta, #Philae, and #Comet67P?
We need more Cosmic Queries about the Rosetta Mission and Comet 67P for guest host Dr. Natalie Starkey, guest astrophysicist and project scientist for #Rosetta, Matt Taylor, and co-host Chuck Nice. Ask your questions HERE IN THE COMMENTS OF THIS POST. Use #CQRosetta by 11PM ET 2-29-16.
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

Comet 67P in silhouette | March 27, 2016 | ESA Rosetta Mission
Single frame enhanced NavCam image taken on March 27, 2016, when Rosetta was 329 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 28 m/pixel and the image measures 28.7 km across.
  
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
Image Date: March 27, 2016
Release Date: April 1, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 
+NASA Solar System Exploration 

#ESA #Comet #Rosetta #Spacecraft #Comet67P #Churyumov
#Gerasimenko #Science #OSIRIS #SolarSystem #Exploration
#Cosmos #Universe #Europe #DLR #Germany #Deutschland #STEM #Education #NavCam

Exploring Imhotep | Comet 67P | ESA Rosetta Mission
This beautiful landscape feels within arm’s reach in this stunning view across the Imhotep region on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The view was captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on January 17, 2016, from a distance of 86.8 km. Measuring 3.2 km across, it captures one of the most geologically diverse areas of the comet.

Imhotep is perhaps most easily identified by the broad smooth area that occupies the centre-right portion of this view. This smooth dusty terrain, which covers about 0.8 sq km, is etched with curvilinear features stretching hundreds of meters and which have been found to change in appearance over time.

Many large boulders are also seen scattered within the smooth terrain, including the boulder Cheops in the foreground. Smaller but more numerous boulders are associated with exposed cliff faces and are most likely the product of erosion. In some debris falls, detailed analysis has revealed the presence of water ice.

Particularly eye-catching is the distinctive layered and fractured material to the left of centre in the background. Similar patterns are also seen in the exposed cliff-like faces towards the right of the scene too, where Imhotep transitions into the Khepry region.

Layers like this are seen in various locations on the comet and scientists are trying to understand how they might be related to the comet’s formation and/or evolution.

Just in front of the prominent left-hand stack of layers a number of small round features can be found. They have a well-defined rim with a smooth interior and appear slightly raised from the surrounding material. One explanation for their appearance is that they are ancient sites of active regions covered by dust and are now being revealed by varying erosion of the overlying layers.

Further in the foreground again and a relatively smooth ‘pathway’ appears to lead towards a more consolidated summit. To the left of this path is the Ash region, while the sheer apex at the top left of the view marks the boundary with Apis.

Use the comet viewer tool to aid navigation around the comet’s regions.

This image was first published on the OSIRIS image of the day website on January 21, 2016.

Credit & Copyright ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
Release Date: January 25, 2016

+European Space Agency, ESA 
+DLR, German Aerospace Center 

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Comet #Rosetta  
#Spacecraft #OSIRIS #Comet67P #Churyumov #Gerasimenko #SolarSystem #JPL #Cosmos #Universe #Imhotep