Huge congratulations to the European Space Agency's Rosetta-satellite attaining orbit over the Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet today, at a catching speed of 135,000 kilometers an hour (84,000mph) while matching 67P's solar-trajectory, slowing to 67P's 55,000kph speed.  Sensor-signal delay is 22 minutes.

Rosetta will orbit 'triangularly' in-sympathy with the comet's tumbling, oblong shape.  When the orbit shrinks to 30-kilometers the robot lander, Philae will deploy-down to the ice-surface.

This time next year will be the flyby of Sol

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/spacecraft-rosetta-arrives-at-comet-67p-after-decadelong-journey-20140806-100gux.html

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/187582-europes-rosetta-becomes-the-first-spacecraft-to-orbit-a-real-live-comet

Churyumov-Gerasimenko is probably older than Earth. 

That is just incredible.

Hmm... Why is it call a live comet. 

Quote from: walkstall on August 06, 2014, 09:09:50 PM
Hmm... Why is it call a live comet. 

Don't read anything into that. It's just a toss-off headline -- a real, live comet!!

The comet is, of course, like all comets -- a dead chunk of rock.

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 06, 2014, 09:39:00 PM
Don't read anything into that. It's just a toss-off headline -- a real, live comet!!

The comet is, of course, like all comets -- a dead chunk of rock.

My grandkids tell me I ask way too many questions.   

Quote from: walkstall on August 06, 2014, 09:46:51 PM
My grandkids tell me I ask way too many questions.   

Think about it -- no human has ever seen a comet up close until this satellite made its rendezvous. So tempting to describe this remote-control encounter as a meeting with a 'real live comet.' 

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 06, 2014, 10:00:53 PM
Think about it -- no human has ever seen a comet up close until this satellite made its rendezvous. So tempting to describe this remote-control encounter as a meeting with a 'real live comet.' 

If I told my grandkid I saw a live comet, they would tell their grandmother I need a straitjacket.  I might be able to slip that past me two great grandkids yet.   

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 06, 2014, 09:39:00 PM
Don't read anything into that. It's just a toss-off headline -- a real, live comet!!

The comet is, of course, like all comets -- a dead chunk of rock.

You're so insensitive to the existence of rocks. "Hussein is dumber than a box of rocks" How do you think that makes the rocks "Feel"...You insensitive clod!

Damn, now I've insulted clods everywhere, sorry Hollywood, just a figure of speech, wasn't singling out any of you clods in particular.

Quote from: kit saginaw on August 06, 2014, 08:45:11 PM
Huge congratulations to the European Space Agency's Rosetta-satellite attaining orbit over the Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet today, at a catching speed of 135,000 kilometers an hour (84,000mph) while matching 67P's solar-trajectory, slowing to 67P's 55,000kph speed.  Sensor-signal delay is 22 minutes.

Rosetta will orbit 'triangularly' in-sympathy with the comet's tumbling, oblong shape.  When the orbit shrinks to 30-kilometers the robot lander, Philae will deploy-down to the ice-surface.

This time next year will be the flyby of Sol

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/spacecraft-rosetta-arrives-at-comet-67p-after-decadelong-journey-20140806-100gux.html

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/187582-europes-rosetta-becomes-the-first-spacecraft-to-orbit-a-real-live-comet

Churyumov-Gerasimenko is probably older than Earth.

I doubt it is. Near the same age, sure. But older than Earth? To be older than Earth it would also have to be older than our solar system, according to the current theories about the creation of our, sun, planet, solar system. :)

Given the Earth, and our moon, (we now allegedly know thanks to moon rocks brought back by the apollo missions) are allegedly around 4.5 billion years old, and are thought to be nearly the same age as our star, now thought to be among the first bodies to coalesce from the solar disk created by our star.

The only way this comet could be older than the Earth, and the rest of the planets in our solar system, would be if it were created some where else in the galaxy/universe/cosmos, and was later captured by our stars gravity as it travelled through the cosmos.

Know how far it is, at light speed to reach our stars, closest companion star in the galaxy? Four years.

Nothing but light, travels that fast.

Voyager, the fastest man made object EVER, is going much faster than this comet.

It travels at the speed of 17 km/s and has only recently, after forty years of travel, left our heliopause and entered into interstellar space.

Care to guess how long it would take Voyager to reach our closest neighbor in the galaxy?

An Ion Drive spacecraft, Deep space 1, which was until only here very recently sci-fiction, would take about 81 thousand years to reach Sol's closest neighbor in the galaxy. If it were sent out there as voyager was, and if it's thrust were left on. Would take thousands of years to reach the nearest star system.

http://www.universetoday.com/15403/how-long-would-it-take-to-travel-to-the-nearest-star/

THIS COMET is much slower and would take much much longer to travel from one star to another.

So if this comet is older than Earth, this comet would be something very rare and worthy of our attention, something very special indeed, as it would be the ONLY celestial body in the solar system, in known existence for that matter, to be extra-solar.

It would be the only celestial body we've ever found, that we could point to and say, THAT CAME FROM ANOTHER STAR SYSTEM.

I am curious though, given it's unlikely this comet IS extra solar, what exactly is the point of this mission? To travel to a comet? Been there done that already. To prove we can land on one? Been there done that too.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/

We KNOW we can send a probe to a comet/asteroid. Hell we KNOW we can land on one too. The Deep Impact mission proved that.

Hell it even proved we can MOVE a comet if need be. ;)

So with this mission will they be doing any scientific tests on the comet?

Will we be checking it's composition to see what sorts of minerals are present?

Will we be looking to see if there are any organic molecules or compounds there?

Will we be looking for extremophile life that maybe riding on or hidden within it's ice?

Will we be looking for proof, or refutation of the pan-spermia theory?

If not, thanks for wasting yet some more money and valuable resources repeating science that's already been done, resources that could be put to better use here on Earth.

Lots of starving kids could be fed, lots of poor kids could be schooled, lots of people in need of medical care, could be helped with the money it takes for such a space mission ya know.

I"m all for science, especially space exploration, because that is our species future. (Different topic)

But, repeating the same things over and over again does nothing but waste time, money, and resources.

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 06, 2014, 09:39:00 PM
Don't read anything into that. It's just a toss-off headline -- a real, live comet!!

The comet is, of course, like all comets -- a dead chunk of rock.

I can see Enquirer headlines now: ALIENS ON COMET OF DEATH.....

Quote from: Solar on August 07, 2014, 05:58:10 AM
You're so insensitive to the existence of rocks. "Hussein is dumber than a box of rocks" How do you think that makes the rocks "Feel"...You insensitive clod!

Damn, now I've insulted clods everywhere, sorry Hollywood, just a figure of speech, wasn't singling out any of you clods in particular.

Insensitive? Glad to see I wasn't the only one accused of that today! 

Other than ore samples, just what does this gain for scientific knowledge, other than confirm earlier guesses about composition? Speaking of clods and such....

Quote from: walkstall on August 06, 2014, 09:46:51 PM
My grandkids tell me I ask way too many questions.   

My wife does that to me. I don't argue with She Who Must be Obeyed.....   

Quote from: quiller on August 21, 2014, 12:24:13 AM
I can see Enquirer headlines now: ALIENS ON COMET OF DEATH.....

Oh yeah! "Ghost of Trayvon Martin sighted on Death Comet!!!"  "JFK documents found on Death Comet... George W. Bush implicated!!!"

Quote from: quiller on August 21, 2014, 12:29:07 AM
Insensitive? Glad to see I wasn't the only one accused of that today! 

Other than ore samples, just what does this gain for scientific knowledge, other than confirm earlier guesses about composition? Speaking of clods and such....

Why waste the money going all the way into space, when all we have to do is tap open a Dim and get the same results.
No sentient life available.

Quote from: TboneAgain on August 06, 2014, 10:00:53 PM
Think about it -- no human has ever seen a comet up close until this satellite made its rendezvous. So tempting to describe this remote-control encounter as a meeting with a 'real live comet.' 

Thats wholly untrue T-bone. The U.S. with it's "Deep Impact" mission has already been to a comet. Slamming a probe into one in fact just to see if we could "move" it at all.

In fact that mission did some of the science behind the next comet/asteroid mission.

Which is going to be NASA claims, to "capture" one and put it into geo-sync orbit out near the moon.

Which I personally think is a bad idea. Mankind doesn't know enough yet about the cosmos to start trying to monkey around with, and move celestial bodies around in our solar system.

I mean what happens if in the course of "capturing" one they cause it to slam into Earth instead by accident?

"Oh our bad, sorry your city (County, state, nation depending on how large the rock is and what it's made of) was wiped out along with millions of folks who lived there".....I mean it's not exactly as if there haven't been "mistakes" and "accidents" in space exploration before.

Besides, whats the benefit to us of going to comets and asteroids?

Can we colonize them? NO

Can we obtain resources there such as coal or oil?

NO

The only thing of use on one besides the water/ice.

Are the metals like Gold, Silver, Platinum, Iron, Nickel etc.... And mining them for those, will NOT benefit the common folks one wit or iota.

In fact if anything all it will serve to do is create more economic turmoil.

For example, just imagine if suddenly we wake up one morning and the price of Gold or Silver or Platinum goes through the floor on the world markets because someone's found, and brought bace tons of these metals, from a chunk of Gold or Silver out there the size of Mt. Mckinley?

Hell we've already found a Diamond out there the size of a planet.

Whats it do the the economy if suddenly we can mine it too?

Suddenly entire national economies are in the toilet because their currencies are backed by Gold, Silver, and other "rare" minerals found here on Earth in limited quantities.

Which are no longer rare, or limited in quantity.

This mission like "Deep Impact" (which at least was attempting to research defending the planet against impact) is nothing but the waste of taxpayer money's to fund research into something which has zero benefit for the human race as a whole.

And which only benefits a small fraction of the populace.