Coconut Ball or Swiss cheese in Rosetta comet – now we get the answer – New Technology

       

– It was not unexpected, we just did not know when. And you’ve no guarantees, says Anders Eriksson, a researcher at the Institute of Space Physics, IRF.

Awakening means that researchers now hope to answers to a series of questions, including how the comet’s interior is built. Philae has with him a number of instruments for observations and sampling. A camera, a drill, a scoop to pick up dirt, a very small oven for heating samples, and a gas chromatograph for analysis. One of the more interesting data is about to make a radiotomografi the comet’s interior.

– It goes to so Philae sends out a continuous radio wave for 12 hours (a comet day) to the space probe Rosetta, which is in orbit around the comet. During that time, cut radio wave through the entire comet. By analyzing the signal in many such disks can get a three dimensional picture of the comet’s interior, similar to a magnetic scanning, for example a knee, said Anders Eriksson.

The researchers were able to calculate the comet’s mass and volume and concluded that the material on average are rather fluffy. Now you want answers on whether fluffiness is divided into small pores in a coconut ball or larger cavities of type swiss cheese, and if it’s different in different parts of the ankformade comet.

- Here it is two kilometers large snowballs that have collided and stuck together without going to pieces, something that is not very likely in the universe. We hope to find out how it is, and it gives us clues to how the solar system and the planets were formed, says Andrs Eriksson.

Philae landing on the comet’s surface in November 2014. After a few bounces chipped it to the rest in the shade of a rock and began the process of taking pictures and samples, and send data to Rosetta. Philae could also send data to a “slice” to radiotomografin. After 60 hours took the batteries out, and space scientists had to wait for them to be recharged. In the meantime taken a number of other samples and photographs from the space probe Rosetta.

– Now, it is first and foremost about changing the space probe Rosetta’s orbit so it is optimal to communicate with the lander. We must prioritize that part of the project, says Anders Eriksson.

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