Well, OK, not exactly on the stars, but on a comet. OK, not exactly walking on it, but landing a rocket ship on it. That's what's going to happen next year, if all goes according to plan:
You may not think this is all that exciting, but it is:
We stand to learn a hell of a lot about what the solar system was like on Day One. That's really exciting.
At precisely 10am GMT on 20 January next year, a tiny electronic chip inside Europe's Rosetta spacecraft will flicker into life. The robot probe will then be several hundred million miles from Earth, an orbit that will be bringing it closer and closer to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a massive ball of ice, dust and organic materials that orbits the Sun every six and a half years.
Rosetta's electronic wakeup call will trigger circuits, heaters and instruments and bring the probe, which has been in hibernation for two and a half years, slowly back to life in preparation for its landing on the comet, one of the most spectacular feats of space exploration ever planned.
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| An artist's impression of Rosetta on the surface of its target comet. Photograph: J. Huart/Corbis |
You may not think this is all that exciting, but it is:
Then, as the comet – which is about 2.5 miles wide – makes its closest approach to the Sun in August 2015, Rosetta will analyse the plumes of water vapour and gas and the geysers of organic material that will erupt into space as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko heats up and sends out a great glowing tail of gas and filaments behind it.
"Rosetta is going to be the first spacecraft to track the life of a comet as it arcs towards the Sun," says Paolo Ferri, head of solar and planetary operations for the space agency. The resulting data and images promise to be dramatic, to say the least.
We stand to learn a hell of a lot about what the solar system was like on Day One. That's really exciting.
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