Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology e Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology
Colliding black holes to exploding spacecraft, 2016 was an incredible year for astrophysics.
Comet 67P taken with a wide-angle lens from an altitude of about 15.5km above the surface during the spacecraft’s final descent on September 30.
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
It has been an epic journey, much more than 12 years in the making, but Rosetta is just about to go out in a blaze of glory. The final commands were uploaded to the spacecraft mid-morning on September…
As far as underwhelming headlines go: “No Alien Life Found on Comet” must rank very close to the top. An article with this title appeared in the Guardian on July 6 in response to a story claiming that…
Sinkholes on comet 67P could be a great thing for science – but not if they they bury Philae.
Vincent et al., Nature Publishing GroupVincent et al., Nature Publishing Group
Sinkholes on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could teach us a lot about the geology and history of the body, but they could also spell the end for Philae.
Landing a spacecraft on a celestial body, whether it be the moon, Mars or a comet, is not easy. The European Space Agency found out the hard way in 2003 when its robot Beagle2, which was supposed to send…
Not yet, but soon … we’re getting closer to sending people to Mars.
Samantha T./Flickr
It was an exciting year in space exploration, with mind-blowing triumphs and heart-breaking failures. On Earth, new rockets and spacecraft were tested by space agencies and commercial ventures. SpaceX…
2014: the year crystallography went mainstream.
CSIRO
’Tis the season for listicles rounding up the stories of the year. So with, the authority vested in me, here is a selection of six top, bottom and forgotten science stories of 2014. Bounciest landing The…
In space, no one can appreciate your artistic spacecraft rendering.
JAXA
The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission to land on comet 67P was one of the most audacious in space history. The idea of landing on a small chunk of icy rock 300m kilometres away from Earth and hurtling…
The drama of Philae’s slow fall, bounce and unfortunate slide into hibernation was one of the most thrilling science stories of a generation. But what in its short 60 hours of life on Comet 67P did it…
Phew, what a day it was yesterday. Ended up having a quiet drink at the hotel. Last drink of the day – a nice cup of tea! Slept well – no nightmares about flying through space looking for somewhere to…
First panorama of a comet.
ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA
The landing of Rosetta’s Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko was a triumph of engineering. Many spectacular scientific firsts will follow now, but small glitches during the landing make it more difficult…
Rosetta is a first-class mission, because it is a mission of firsts. First to fly-by asteroid Steins, a rare metal-poor asteroid. First to travel past asteroid Lutetia, which might be related to a class…