Philae is asleep

It is with some sadness that I report that Philae is asleep.  More likely than not, he tipped over, but he may have simply ended up in a shady spot that didn't provide enough solar power.  In any case, his batteries have been exhausted and he has powered down.  If, by luck of the comets, his solar panels do eventually store up enough energy, he may try to speak to us again.  Rosetta will remain in orbit and will keep listening for him.

While there is some sadness, there is also still much cheer.  Many, many firsts were accomplished on this mission that I would do well to remember was launched 10 years ago.  Philae did transmit a lot of scientific data while operating with his battery.  He did land.  And the pictures both he and Rosetta took allowed us to see far more detail than we've ever seen.  While many were hoping to get more scientific work done on this trip to 67P, it has been quite fruitful already and Rosetta will continue to operate and give us the closest look we've ever had at a comet as it approaches the sun.

Thank you, Philae.

Philae panorama

So, here's the first panorama of Phila's landing spot:

You can see two of the landing gears pretty clearly at about 11:30 and 3:30.  The other one is a bit faint at 7:30.  The fact that we have this image is amazing.  However, as was pointed out by Emily Lakdawalla, the slice from about 12:00 to 2:00 looks like sky.  Either that means Philae is on the edge of a cliff or it's on a slope.  Neither are good places to be when the comet starts to become active again.  Hopefully, they can figure out the harpoons.

Philae landing successful!

So, Philae has landed!  We shot a bullet at a bullet and it hit!  Not everything is going exactly as planned, however.  The thruster meant to counteract the harpoons' recoil was not functioning before separation, but the team went ahead anyway.  Now, it appears the harpoons themselves did not fire.  While gravity is enough to hold Philae to the comet for now, when the there is more activity closer to the sun, it may no longer be.  The harpoons are essential for securing Philae to the main body of the comet.

Despite all this, here's another great picture Philae took during descent.  The landing gear appears in the upper right (no, that's not a UFO).

UPDATE: At a press briefing just now, it appears that Philae may have rebounded a bit.  The radio link was fluctuating, though consistently re-linked.  Some data showed that Philae was rotating for a bit, then stopped rotating.  All of this would be consistent with Philae landing, rebounding, then landing again.  For the coming hours, Rosetta (our only link to Philae) is below the horizon, so there is no radio link.  This particular loss of link was planned and expected, so there is nothing to be concerned with in this regard.

First pictures from Philae and Rosetta, post-separation

Tweets are coming fast and furious now (at least by astronomical standards).  That seems to be the preferred method of dissemination at the moment.  And Philae does indeed look a bit like a fly.

That's, of course, Rosetta taking an image of Philae during his freefall to Comet 67P.  Here's a picture of Rosetta, taken by Philae, just after separation.

Philae getting ready for separation from Rosetta

I'm staying up late tonight to witness history.  Humanity is trying to land a spacecraft on a comet.  Like one bird watching another bird trying to spit a fly out the end of a straw to catch a bullet, I must see what happens.  This fly that them European birds spat out goes by the name of Rosetta.  She's already caught up to the speeding bullet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Now this Rosetta fly is gonna spit out a smaller fly, Philae, to actually land on this bullet.  I'll rest some before that happens.  There's still some possibility that won't go as planned.  After 10 years of hibernation, some parts of Philae appear to be failing.  At least the separation is still a go and that will be one for the history books regardless.

Sufficiently advanced technology is indiscernible from magic, indeed.

As I wait for the magic moment, this video warms my thoughts:

All Space Considered, November 2014

Planetary News

The big treat of this particular installment of All Space Considered was guest Emily Lakdawalla, Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist of The Planetary Society.  There was a fair amount of solar system news, so she had much to say.

Rosetta

First and foremost, Philae is a probe that has been carried by Rosetta out to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.  Rosetta actually arrived at the comet back in August and has since been trying to find a decent landing site for Philae, which will be sent to the surface of the comet.  After much deliberation, Philae is almost ready to depart Rosetta.  It is happening THIS WEDNESDAY MORNING, 7AM PT.  It will be streamed everywhere.  Have a look at it!  This will be an historic event and there's very little you could possibly be doing that you'd want to miss this for.

Siding Spring

One major, major piece of luck (once in 8 million years level of luck) that people studying Mars received was comet Siding Spring passing close enough to Mars to have significant portions of its coma (aka tail) enter the Martian atmosphere. This coincided perfectly with the arrival of MAVEN, which joined six other active spacecraft at Mars.  While none of the craft were specifically designed to study comets, MAVEN was designed to study the Martian atmosphere.  With so much alien debris raining through the atmosphere, MAVEN was able to provide useful information about the composition of the comet and how that composition interacts with Mars.  One big surprise was how quickly some of the materials dissipated.  This did not match models, which means we learned something.

Misc

Mercury has ice water on it.  Yes, Mercury, where temperatures at the surface normally boil water, has ice.  Messenger recently sent back pictures confirming that polar craters have regions where there is never sunshine.  Like being in the desert at night, these places have nothing regulating the temperature and so are extremely cold.

New Horizons nearing Pluto.  New Horizons is nearing Pluto and will start snapping pictures in early 2015.  The news for this month was that a second Kuiper Belt object was found for New Horizons to target after it passes Pluto.  After several failed searches for such an object with lesser telescopes, Hubble came to the rescue to find a target.

And here's a really pretty picture.  There are lakes of hydrocarbons on Titan.  Like lakes on earth, if you're in the right place at the right time, you can see the sun reflect off these lakes.  Here it is:

Non-planetary News

Private Space Setbacks

The biggest astronomical news was the recent failed launches of an Antares rocket as well as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo.  These were, of course, unfortunate events, especially the loss of life; but there's been plenty of coverage of this elsewhere and I won't dwell on it here.

Lunar Eclipse

There was a total lunar eclipse in October.  Lots of pretty pictures were taken and shared by the staff astronomers.  And, of course, there was a reminder of the total solar eclipse that will take place on 21 August 2017.  It will be visible within just a few hour's drive from almost all of the continental United States, so there is no excuse not to see it.  It is an amazing and transformative experience.  That said, I don't get too excited about eclipses only because there isn't a lot of science to be gained from them anymore.  We've learned much of what there is to learn.  However, that doesn't mean I won't stand in awe in August 2017!

As always, I'm sure I've left something marvelous and interesting out.  My memory isn't perfect and isn't getting any better over time.  If anyone has anything they'd like to add, please let me know in the comments!