The Philae comet lander has fallen
silent, according to scientists
working on the European Rosetta
mission.
The fridge-sized spacecraft, which landed
on Comet 67P in November, last made
contact on 9 July.
But efforts to contact it again since then
have failed, scientists have said.
The first craft to perform a soft landing on
a comet, Philae initially bounced, landing
in a position too dark for sunlight to reach
its solar panels.
It woke up in June as the comet moved
closer to the sun. But the latest data
suggests something, perhaps gas emission
from the comet's surface, may have moved
it again.
"The profile of how strongly the sun is
falling on which panels has changed from
June to July, and this does not seem to be
explained by the course of the seasons on
the comet alone," said Stephan Ulamec,
Philae project manager at the German
Aerospace Center (DLR).
Philae's antenna may have been
obstructed, and one of its transmitters
appears to have stopped working, Rosetta
team members said.
silent, according to scientists
working on the European Rosetta
mission.
The fridge-sized spacecraft, which landed
on Comet 67P in November, last made
contact on 9 July.
But efforts to contact it again since then
have failed, scientists have said.
The first craft to perform a soft landing on
a comet, Philae initially bounced, landing
in a position too dark for sunlight to reach
its solar panels.
It woke up in June as the comet moved
closer to the sun. But the latest data
suggests something, perhaps gas emission
from the comet's surface, may have moved
it again.
"The profile of how strongly the sun is
falling on which panels has changed from
June to July, and this does not seem to be
explained by the course of the seasons on
the comet alone," said Stephan Ulamec,
Philae project manager at the German
Aerospace Center (DLR).
Philae's antenna may have been
obstructed, and one of its transmitters
appears to have stopped working, Rosetta
team members said.
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