Way Out

          graphic: European Space Agency/Rosetta Mission

SLEEP WELL, LITTLE LANDER: Unfortunate but not unexpected news today from the European Space Agency, "Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from which it is unlikely to recover."

We have followed the remarkable Rosetta mission with great interest. I mean, you have to love a spacecraft that is so well engineered that it's able to travel to a moving target (Comet 67P) and then launch a lander onto the comet's surface!

During its brief period of activity (64 hours from launch to landing), Philae took detailed images of the comet from above and on the surface, sniffed out organic compounds, and profiled the local environment and surface properties of the comet, providing unprecedented insights. 

Rosetta will continues its scientific investigations of the comet until September, when it will crash itself (well, with programmers' help) into the surface, joining Philae forever.

ALL TOGETHER NOW: Neat video from NASA today, showing the assembly of the James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors from start to finish. 

Photographer Chris Gunn and Producer Michael McClare, both from NASA Goddard collaborated to produce the video. Over a three-month period, they captured 141,639 images for the time-lapse at a rate of one image taken every 30 seconds between November 11, 2015 and February 1, 2016, a total of 83 days.

"Months before the mirror installation began, I looked for the perfect time-lapse camera placement, one that would give viewers an unprecedented look at the mirror integration of the space telescope," Gunn said. "When I decided that the best place to mount the camera would be on the 'over deployment fixture' directly above telescope structure I expected the mirror integration team to reject the proposal. After they verified the safety of our proposed camera set-up they were just as enthusiastic about the idea as I was.”
https://youtu.be/1d1sHLkmNQI

Each of the telescope's hexagonal-shaped mirror segments measures just over 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) across and weighs about 88 pounds (40 kilograms). Once in space and fully unfolded/deployed, the 18 mirrors will work together as one large 21.3-foot diameter (6.5-meter) mirror.

POP ART: Today's physics lesson came courtesy of the musical group OK GO. Their music videos are always an over-the-top spectacle, but their newest one is an absolute eye popper.

For their song, "Upside Down & Inside Out," the video was recorded inside an accelerating aircraft to produce a zero-G environment. Per stories we read today, there were 15 parabolas per flight. They spent the first 7 parabolas rehearsing, and then ran the entire dance all the way through for the last eight.

The video wasn't available anywhere but the band's Facebook page initially, so I don't have a YouTube link for you right now, unfortunately. But I can share some behind-the-scenes videos.

OK Go - Upside Down & Inside OutHello, Dear Ones. Please enjoy our new video for "Upside Down & Inside Out".  A million thanks to S7 Airlines. #GravitysJustAHabit
Posted by OK Go on Thursday, February 11, 2016

The filming made a terrible mess, and between flights (two per day), the interior of the plane was hosed down, resulting in a wet, cold plane, like a "frigid, stinking swamp" per one of the crew working on set. https://youtu.be/aRhchsKmoPg