Rosetta: Comet landing site chosen

Europe’s Rosetta mission has identified the spot where a spacecraft will attempt the first ever landing on a comet later this year

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ROSETTA ORBITER

Philae lander

Site “J”: Primary landing site located on smaller of comet’s lobes

Site “C”: Back-up site
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67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Icy core is around 4km (2.5 miles) wide

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HOW TO LAND ON A COMET

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Ejection: Once orbiter is at around 10km above comet’s surface, ground station commands fridge-sized lander to self-eject from mother ship

Descent: Philae “falls” at about 1m per second – due to comet’s weak gravitational pull. Descent expected to take 8-12 hours

Touchdown: Two harpoons preventcraft bouncing back into space

PHILAE LANDER: Drill to extract samples into onboard laboratory to analyse comet’s chemistry

Source: ESA Picture: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team