• Question: What is the most interesting thing about working on the Rosetta space mission?

    Asked by 638spce27 to Laurence on 9 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Laurence O'Rourke

      Laurence O'Rourke answered on 9 Mar 2016:


      Flying around a comet is the most interesting thing about working on Rosetta. It’s never been done before so it’s all new and amazing in the changes that can be seen in the comet as it gets closer to the sun. The comet was pretty much a giant ice dirt ball when we met it in August 2014, then we saw it gradually wake up to produce small jets (gas & dust coming from holes on its surface) as it got closer to the sun. Then in April last year we started seeing explosions happening on the surface which sent out large ice rocks hurtling into space. Really cool – have a look at this page to see the images which you get when this happens : http://imagearchives.esac.esa.int/index.php?/category/1

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