A historic mission of twelve years came to end when Europe Space Agency’s probe Rosetta crashed on its own comet.
Europe Space Agency has confirmed that Rosetta has smashed into its 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet on Friday morning.
ESA’s probe Rosetta was investigating and searching for building blocks of life. Rosetta travelled a total of 7 billion kilometres and had revolved the comet for 2 years.
The power for the operation of the probe had become too much weak as the icy body travelled farther away from the sun which results in the crash-landing of the spacecraft.
Rosetta Space Probe was launched by Europe Space Agency (ESA) on March 2nd, 2004. The spacecraft also passed by Mars and asteroids 21 Lutetia and 2867 Šteins in its journey.
The cost of the mission was over $1.8 billion. Rosetta was first ever space probe which orbited the comet for two years and landed on the comet.
The space agency confirmed the loss of signal and the landing of the Rosetta on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet at 7:19am
LOSS OF SIGNAL #LOS European Space Agency confirms end of contact w/ @ESA_Rosetta. Operations complete at 720mn km from Earth #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/ehzQ5gMf1W
— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) September 30, 2016
People went very emotional in the control room and around the world after the landing.
Never watched a spacecraft slowly die before now. Very emotional. Yes, it was just a machine, but dozens of people put their hearts into it.
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 30, 2016
The agency marked the landing by tweeting “Mission Complete” in different languages.
लक्ष प्राप्त हुअा #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/i6dmugR70y
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) September 30, 2016
The mission has been a huge success. European Space Agency announced that they had detected the organic compounds in the atmosphere of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko earlier this year.
“Just as the Rosetta Stone after which this mission was named was pivotal in understanding ancient language and history, the vast treasure trove of Rosetta spacecraft data is changing our view on how comets and the Solar System formed,” project scientist Matt Taylor said in a statement.
“Inevitably, we now have new mysteries to solve. The comet hasn’t given up all of its secrets yet, and there are sure to be many surprises hidden in this incredible archive. So don’t go anywhere yet — we’re only just beginning.”