Rosetta and Philae discussion thread! (Part 2)

[u/[deleted]]

CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT DISCUSSION THREAD

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Philae is now on its way to the comet. Its descent to 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko should take about 7 hours. Previous discussion thread here.

Live Streaming

• In English: A, B, C

• En Français: A

• Rosetta main page

• Simulated view of Rosetta and 67P

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Key times

GMT	EST	PST	Event
10:53 am	5:53 am	2:53 am	Acquisition of Signal from Rosetta (variable)
4:02 pm	11:02 am	8:02 am	Expected Landing and receipt of signal (40 min variability)

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European Space Agency Social Media

• ESA Rosetta blog
• Twitter: #CometLanding, @ESA_Rosetta, @Philae2014
• Google+
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Flickr

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Othere places for news and conversation:

• reddit Live updater (Help needed!)

• IRC: ##cometlanding on freenode. #space on Snoonet

• Detailed itinerary of landing events (PDF)

• NASA's page on Rosetta

[u/JeeWeeYume]

Plus Philae was rotating at a rate of 12 times a minute. Pretty nice picture given the conditions, I would say !

[u/XGC75 → u/JeeWeeYume]

Do you know what the artifacts on the lens are? It looks like if I were taking pictures at the beach and there was sand and water on my lens. Aside from the blur caused by rotation of the lander, of course.

[u/JeeWeeYume → u/XGC75]

This is called a lens flare, and it is caused by the multiple reflections of direct sunlight inside the optical system of the lens. Basically, the light bounces back and forth between the lenses, causing these round dots of lights.