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Rosetta's Philae Probe To Land On Comet Tomorrow
An anonymous reader writes: After more than 10 years travelling, the Rosetta mission will take its next, momentous step by landing the Philae probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko tomorrow. How f!@#$%ing cool is that?! Follow the landing live using the webcast, blog, or Twitter feed. (Keep in mind there's a 28-minute delay due to the time it takes the radio signals to reach Earth). Here's the scheduling info: "For the primary landing scenario, targeting Site J, Rosetta will release Philae at 08:35 GMT/09:35 CET at a distance of 22.5 km from the center of the comet, landing about seven hours later. The one-way signal travel time between Rosetta and Earth on 12 November is 28 minutes 20 seconds, meaning that confirmation of the landing will arrive at Earth ground stations at around 16:00 GMT/17:00 CET. If a decision is made to use the backup Site C, separation will occur at 13:04 GMT/14:04 CET, 12.5 km from the center of the comet. Landing will occur about four hours later, with confirmation on Earth at around 17:30 GMT/18:30 CET. The timings are subject to uncertainties of several minutes."
There's about as much chance of that happening as you revising your theory when it doesn't match observations: practically none.
I'm wondering what Talbott and Thornhill have been reading, or perhaps I should say what they have been smoking, because their description of the observations does not match the ESA's. It has lots of water and a dust trail, and while there has been some unexpected magnetic activity, there isn't some electrical bogeyman waiting to jump out at the lander — and it's not like the scientists involved aren't paying attention to such things. Apparently in order to believe in EU not only do you need to ignore a century's worth of physics (including Einstein), you also have to ignore current observations and make up your own. This is beyond intellectually dishonest and far into flat-earth crackpot territory.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
I want to disagree. I mean yeah, Man on the Moon. In any universe, that is going to be cool. But that appears easy compared to Rosetta.
10 years to get there, circling through the solar system how many times? Then catching a comet with just about no gravity, and slowing down to pace it. Even 'orbiting' it a few times, which is really just firing your rockets to go in a circle.
And then landing? The Moon is a freakin' parking lot with stripes compared to that comet. Plus, having an astronaut came in handy when what's his name had to manually land with seconds to go.
Yes, I remember. But I was a kid, and I guess I figured they did that shit all the time. I didn't appreciate anything. Now, in hindsight, I know different, and appreciate (somewhat) what they did during Apollo. But this seems harder than that, and thus, cooler.
It's not what they believe that makes them intellectually dishonest, it's denying and inventing observations. Crackpot is not nice but it is accurate.
I await your wonderful discoveries, submitted to the appropriate scientific journals...
EU people have a hard time getting published, and never in reputable journals.
Whoever wrote that definitely fancies himself a scientist. That's enough.
This contradicts the above, and fancying yourself a scientist is enough for what exactly? Enough to lie to people? No, the important part of being a scientist is not dressing in a lab coat, having a PhD (the EU guys are in no danger of that), or making predictions. The important part is being empirical, testing your predictions in a methodical way, and adapting your theory to match those observations. There is no more value to what Thornhill and Talbott's writings than any other lunatic's ravings. If you want to cheer on pyramid energy, crystal therapy, homeopathy, or the Electric Universe, that is your business, but it has no place in science.
Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
Philae has separated from Rosetta, and is now sailing at 18 cm/s toward the comet. One of its rocket engines, on top of Philae, does not work. This engine is intended to push Philae against the comet; we now face the possiblity that Philae gently "bounces back" into space, because of the comet's very low gravity. Tension rising here.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
here
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