Landing on Comet, a Mission Aims to Unlock Earth’s Mysteries

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Source:  Kenneth Chang, The New York Times

Excerpt: In a technological feat that gives scientists their first opportunity to dig into a remnant of the early solar system, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission successfully placed a small spacecraft on the surface of ... Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a 2.5-mile-wide ball of rock, ice and dust moving faster than 40,000 miles an hour,....” The agency’s director general, Jean-Jacques Dordain said at a news conference... “Not only is it the first to rendezvous with and orbit a comet, but it is now also the first to deliver a probe to a comet’s surface.” ...For scientists, one of the central mysteries that Rosetta will explore is whether Earth’s oceans are filled with melted comets ... slamming into the Earth early on.... See also interview with Joel W. Parker, planetary scientist....

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/science/space/european-space-agencys-spacecraft-lands-on-comets-surface.html

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