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Pictures of a Comet From 9 Meters Away
An anonymous reader writes: Back in November, the European Space Agency triumphantly put a lander on the surface of a comet and then tragically lost contact with it when it failed to anchor and couldn't harvest enough energy to stay operational. In June, the lander awoke and for a short time was able to send more data back. Now the ESA has published a bunch of pictures and scientific papers about the data gleaned from Philae's short windows of activity, including images of its descent to the surface. Phil Plait summarizes and analyzes the release. The most impressive image is from a mere 9 meters over the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. An animated gif shows the lander's descent near the surface through a handful of pictures. Two shots of the same area from the Rosetta probe show where Philae bounced off the surface, ejecting an estimated 180kg of material in the process. It's a fascinating, close-up look at a very distant and unusual world.
Speaking as someone who was a little kid during the Apollo era these images are amazing. I feel so fortunate to be alive in the era of solar system and interstellar exploration. Pioneer, Mariner, Viking... it's like seeing what it would look like to walk on other worlds. Visualizing just how far away the Pioneer and Voyager probes are is mind-bending. And to see new views of Pluto... it's just so awesome. :)