Did you know that for the last ten years a little spacecraft, named Rosetta, has been traveling to catch up with a comet? The name of the comet is quite a mouthful - P76/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, so let's just call it, "the
comet," shall we?
The Rosetta orbiter has a small lander aboard named Philae. Tomorrow afternoon Philae will launch and land on the comet.Land - on a comet! Pretty amazing if you ask me.
Check out this cute video put together by the European Space Agency about the mission. It's short and prefect for kids. OK, I loved it too, especially the part where Philae packs for his trip. My students really appreciated the "I love Earth" patch on his little bag.
As I watched that video (and this one) I found myself wondering about all the math involved in making this happen. (It kind of blows my mind.)
If I've peaked your curiosity, you can watch Philea's landing live here. Coverage starts at 2:00 PM EST.
It was amazing to see the news coverage on the TV!
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