Comet watching

[Dave2002]

Today could be a remarkable day for scientists - with the landing attempt of the Philae lander probe on a comet 500 million km away.

Amazing.

[hedgehog]

Yes it's on its way now. I read though that it's 50-50 whether it will make the landing. A lot of data to be gathered on the way down to the comet in any case.

http://www.esa.int/ESA

[Flay]

Haven't we come a long way? Do you remember Giotto's Halley flyby with its excited "live" coverage. It was just a few-pixel blob!

We can get Rosetta live it appears.

[Dave2002]

"Live" isn't too thrilling right now - just one or two guys in a control room - seemingly not doing much. Let's hope we get to see more later - hopefully the probe will take pictures on the way down.

Conceptually though this is immense - and fail or succeed a great achievement so far. Fingers crossed for good news later today.

[salymap]

Scary to think of what's happened in my 84 years. What's next I wonder.

[Serial_Apologist]

Scary to think of what's happened in my 84 years. What's next I wonder.

85 years!

[amateur51]

Haven't we come a long way? Do you remember Giotto's Halley flyby with its excited "live" coverage. It was just a few-pixel blob!

We can get Rosetta live it appears.

I remember the splendidly be-dimpled cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin mate

[johncorrigan]

Haven't we come a long way? Do you remember Giotto's Halley flyby with its excited "live" coverage. It was just a few-pixel blob!

We can get Rosetta live it appears.

Thanks Flay - some great images - it looks mighty hostile out there hurtling through space - funny, it never occurred to me that comets would be anything but smooth. Loved the description of Rosetta that it's like chucking a hammer from London and it landing on a nail in Delhi - great feat!

[Mary Chambers]

I think that comets and the moon both look much better at a great distance. As ever, I am pretty much unmoved by exploits in space.

[Ferretfancy]

I think that comets and the moon both look much better at a great distance. As ever, I am pretty much unmoved by exploits in space.

I think you should be a tiny bit ashamed, Mary. The beginnings of an understanding of the Universe in all its complexity is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the human race.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think that comets and the moon both look much better at a great distance. As ever, I am pretty much unmoved by exploits in space.

A;. but even if you don't appreciate the space exploits, there's the abstract wonder of a species that in a little over a century can develop technology from a motorised box kite travelling a couple of hundred yards to getting a machine to reach a tiny object over 300 million miles away - "a great distance", indeed! And that same species can also produce the Mozart C minor String Quintet, too! Astonishing and wonderful.

[teamsaint]

I think you should be a tiny bit ashamed, Mary. The beginnings of an understanding of the Universe in all its complexity is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the human race.

was space exploration important to the development of , say, Quantum Physics? ( genuine question).

I am impressed by this extraordinary achievement, (and still fondlyrecall the thrill of watching apollos 8 to 11 as a child,)but I do really wonder if it is a good use of resources.
I think I heard that they hope to prove that water on earth was seeded from a comet. if they do "prove " this, will it really help us in day to day issues like water scarcity ?

[Mary Chambers]

I think you should be a tiny bit ashamed, Mary. The beginnings of an understanding of the Universe in all its complexity is one of the greatest intellectual achievements of the human race.

Everyone tells me this. I don't feel very ashamed, I'm afraid. Sorry.

[Mary Chambers]

And that same species can also produce the Mozart C minor String Quintet, too! Astonishing and wonderful.

Ah, now you're talking!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

was space exploration important to the development of , say, Quantum Physics? ( genuine question).

I'm not sure - possibly the other way round?

I am impressed by this extraordinary achievement, (and still fondly recall the thrill of watching apollos 8 to 11 as a child,)but I do really wonder if it is a good use of resources.
I think I heard that they hope to prove that water on earth was seeded from a comet. if they do "prove " this, will it really help us in day to day issues like water scarcity ?

Very good questions - I think the answer is "we don't know": but the point is that they might. I may have my people muddled here, but didn't Farraday have no idea how "useful" electricity might be: he was "merely" trying to discover how and why things happened. And now we have machines that can be carried around that can resuscitate people who have sudden heart attacks. Did the inventors of Laser imagine that what they were doing would revolutionize the efficacy of brain surgery? The planet has plenty of water, it's getting the stuff where it's most needed that's the problem. Maybe learning from the comets will help. Or maybe something completely and unforeseeably else - and/or maybe not for another hundred years or so. Or maybe not at all - but we will at least know that the knowledge we gain is "useless", which itself is useful (in that we stop addressing wrong questions and focus on the real ones).