Rosetta Awakens

The spacecraft Rosetta successfully stirred from a long, 31-month, energy-saving slumber and sent a signal home to the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany, making mission control very happy. The probe is destined for an unprecedented rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August, when it will begin gathering data about how a comet's surface is altered by its approach to the sun. Then, in November, the probe will deploy a small lander to the surface of the comet, sending back the first high resolution and panoramic images of a comet's surface. The probe also carries instruments to drill 23 cm beneath the surface and feed samples to the lander's on-board laboratory for analysis.

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