fiogf49gjkf0d
Gizmorama - August 11, 2014
Good Morning, After traveling for ten years the Rosetta space probe has finally caught up to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Hey, better late than never. Now, the probe is preparing to research the comet... and possibly landing on it.
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
ErinP.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click
GopherArchives****-- Rosetta space probe finally catches up to speeding comet --*DARMSTADT, Germany (UPI) - For ten years, the Rosetta space probe has been chasing comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Today, it finally caught up, and is currently preparing to sling intself into orbit around the space rock -- marking a new phase in its 3.7-billion-mile-and-counting-long journey.
Other spacecraft have approached comets at close range, but Rosetta is the first to orbit one. The process of positioning itself into a stable orbit will take a few days.
Once in orbit, it will stay there for a few months, documenting the rock as it whizzes around the sun. But Rosetta and its European Space Agency controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, have larger ambitions than just orbiting a comet. They want to land on it.
On November 11, Rosetta will send down a lander vehicle called Philae. The craft will attempt land on the surface of the comet using two harpoons. There are number things that could complicate the attempt.
First is the fact that scientists don't know exactly what the comet is made of. Will the harpoons properly pierce and grab hold? Second, the comet is a binary comet -- two rocky spheres, one large and one small, seemingly fused millions of years ago in a low-velocity collision. It looks like a rubber duck or a snowman, and the odd shape will make it hard to find a suitable landing site.
If Rosetta and Philae are able to overcome these difficulties it will be a monumental achievement. Astronomers believe comets likely preceded the formation of stars and solar systems and planets, and that they contain the building blocks for life. Studying one up close could offer new insights into how humans came to be.
Already, Rosetta is documenting the comet from close range. Magnificent imagery of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko can be seen on ESA's website.
*-- Great white chomps down on SharkCam, takes it for a ride --*GUADALUPE ISLAND, Mexico (UPI) - As most of the world already knows, it's "Shark Week," and that means lots and lots of shark videos. The latest is courtesy of a Discovery-funded underwater camera deployed and controlled by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
The so-called SharkCam is actually six underwater cameras -- GoPro video cams, to be specific -- all mounted on a REMUS-100, a underwater probe. The small robotic sub is also outfitted with a navigation system, acoustic sensors, GPS, Wi-Fi, and temperature probes.
The SharkCam probe uses these instruments to record info about the environs through which it swims, and it uses its nav system and GPS to follow nearby sharks that have been previously tagged by scientists with a tracking device.
"Another system on the vehicle permits it to communicate with scientists on the surface every 10 to 20 seconds and to receive commands from the surface to change speed, depth, or other mission parameters as necessary," the WHOI website explains.
Although the SharkCam is programmed not to interfere with the animals' behavior or routines, as the video shows, the SharkCam is quickly noticed once in the vicinity of a group of sharks. Some charge it and bump it out of annoyance, while other sharks stalk if from beneath as if attacking a seal -- interpreting the cam as prey, even if only momentarily. Others simply ignore it. In the video above, one of the great whites grabs the probe and drags it through the ocean.
This particular camera survived a series of attacks, and has not just the footage but also the bite marks to prove it.
This latest video was part of research by WHOI scientists around Guadalupe Island in Mexico, but marine biologists with the organization have also been actively studying white sharks off the coast of Cape Cod. Scientists plan to use the REMUS probe and its cameras to track and film other marine mammals, like sea turtles, in the near future.
More videos captured by the SharkCam -- which Discovery has dubbed the "Jaws Strikes Back Cam" -- can be found on Discovery's Shark Week homepage.
Missed an Issue? Visit the Gizmorama Archives