11/14/2014

The First Touchdown On A Comet

11:47 minutes

A two-image mosaic taken on Nov. 12, 2014, by Rosetta's Philae lander's CIVA camera. It confirms Philae landed safely on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image by ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
A two-image mosaic taken on Nov. 12, 2014, by Rosetta’s Philae lander’s CIVA camera. It confirms Philae landed safely on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Image by ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

This week, the European Space Agency’s Philae lander was deployed from the Rosetta spacecraft and touched down on the Comet 67P/C-G. Joel Parker, deputy principal investigator on Rosetta’s ALICE instrument, takes us through the bumpy landing and describes what the suite of instruments can tell us about the comet and the formation of the universe.

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Joel Parker

Joel Parker is deputy principal investigator on the Rosetta mission’s ALICE instrument, and director of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

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