Rosetta: To chase a comet
Monday, January 20, 2014 - 06:30
in Astronomy & Space
Comets are among the most beautiful and least understood nomads of the night sky. To date, half a dozen of these most heavenly of heavenly bodies have been visited by spacecraft in an attempt to unlock their secrets. All these missions have had one thing in common: the high-speed flyby. Like two ships passing in the night (or one ship and one icy dirtball), they screamed past each other at hyper velocity—providing valuable insight, but fleeting glimpses, into the life of a comet. That is, until Rosetta.