FAREWELL, SPACE TRAVELER: For years now, we've been following the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission. The remarkable program sent a spacecraft on a 10-year journey to a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And Rosetta had a probe on it, Philae, which successfully landed on the comet back on Nov. 12, 2014.
It's an impressive mission - landing on a moving target 4 billion miles from home! - and so that got our attention. But to be honest, what really sucked us in was the ESA's charming videos about Rosetta and Philae. Here is part of their story.
https://youtu.be/f02jrPW2WBU
There's a video about the first year of the comet rendezvous.
https://youtu.be/szyq33W-GvI
And here is the continuing story of Rosetta's second year near the comet.
https://youtu.be/lxdDx8frN_Y
Overnight, the Rosetta mission came to an end, as the spacecraft made a planned plummeted to the comet's surface.
Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at 10:14 GMT from an altitude of about 1.2 km during the spacecraft’s final descent on 30 September.
Before impact, Rosetta sent back one final photo, taken about 20 meters above the comet's surface.
Photo: European Space Agency
Shortly after, the ESA confirmed LOS (loss of signal).
Photo: European Space Agency
Now, Rosetta has joined Philae on the comet's surface. https://youtu.be/vcYo-qQ5HbA
Rest well, Rosetta.
Illustration: European Space Agency
And it turns out one of our favorite rock star astrophysicists was watching Rosetta, as well. Here's Dr. Brian May bidding the space probe adieu.
JULIA AND ME: This evening, we headed up to Mukilteo for a special birthday dinner. Rather than going out, I pitched making a special dinner at my mom's place. She loves the movie "Julie & Julia," and that reminded me of an ancient memory of the first dinner I can recall ever cooking.
Back in the day we didn't have many channels, and I spent a fair amount of time watching the Public Broadcasting Service. Julia Child's "French Chef" show was a fixture, and for whatever reason, one day in 1971, I watched an episode (specifically, season 9, episode 15) where she cooked Sole Bonne Femme (sole with mushrooms) from start to finish. I was determined to replicate it and asked my parents to get me the necessary ingredients, which I'd scrawled .
My 6-year-old-chef year-old version included canned mushrooms (ew...), and likely some Martini & Rossi, since it was the Seventies and ever home bar had that in stock then. I doubt I used sole, and I'm sure I didn't make a roux and the fish stock sauce. But remember thinking it was pretty OK back then, and I didn't even like fish.
Fast forward 45 years, and I was in my mom's kitchen again, making sole bonne femme. This go was a lot more sophisticated. Suffice it to say, if you follow Julia Child's recipe to a T, it is actually quite delicious.
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