Credits: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
LATEST ON LANDING: Our morning started with a briefing from European Space Agency folks regarding what was new with Philae overnight. The press conference was about 45 minutes long, live from the ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. It featured updates from the Rosetta mission operations team, the Philae lander manager and scientists, and a presentation of initial images and data from the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
One thing we learned is that Philae actually landed three times! It bounced after first touch down, traveled kilometers, touched down again, had a smaller bounce, and then landed at its final resting spot.
Here is a photo Philae took as it was headed in for its first (and only planned/expected) landing.
Credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/
The red marks show the the first touchdown point of the Philae lander on Comet 67P/C-G,. The photo is from Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera, taken from a distance of 50 km, back on September 2, 2014.
However, here is a screen shot from the ESA broadcast showing Stephan Ulamec, DLR Philae lander manager, showing a graphic of where Philae first landed (red) and bounced to (blue - the rim of a crater).
Experts think Philae bounced up to a kilometer with the first bump, was airborne for over an hour, and then the second bump was much shorter, perhaps around 20 meters.
The good news is the lander appears to have landed upright, based on photos so far, and indications are that the science instruments on board are working.
The not as great news is that where it is, the spot gets less sunlight than the original targeted landing spot. Early estimates were that Philae will only have 50 to 55 hours of battery power remaining because of the lack of sunlight (as opposed to a bit over 60 hours as initially anticipated). We also read reports of suspected solar panel damage, which certainly wouldn't help Philae's cause. According to BBC news, the lander is receiving only 1.5 hours of sunlight for every 20 hour rotation of the comet, which is insufficient to keep its batteries charged beyond the weekend.
We'll certainly be watching and waiting for another update tomorrow.
CURIOSITY KILLED THE DINOS?: Dinovember continues, and last night our visitors spent some time surfing the 'net. Apparently they were trying to figure out why there aren't more dinosaurs roaming the Earth. Or at least our neighborhood. ...
They were probably none too pleased with what they found out. ...
Bummer, dino dudes. ...
ARTSY: I'm behind on posting pics of Annabelle's art projects. Of course, if I posted pics of ALL of her projects, it would take me hours!
Here's a 3D card she made in art class on Wednesday. Cute, and a fun way to make one's artwork truly pop off a page!
And this morning, Annabelle used a tutorial at the back of the "Phoebe and Her Unicorn" book she got at "The Last Unicorn" special screening on Monday.
Annabelle's version looks very much like Marigold, the unicorn in the book by local artist Dana Simpson.
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