Rosetta Spacecraft marked an end to its historical journey as it collided with the comet it is orbiting upon. The remarkable end of the 12-year journey took place yesterday as the European Space Agency (ESA) watches it slowly losing signal.
The collision was not an accidental one as the decision to change Rosetta's direction and position it in a colliding angle was issued last Thursday. The decision was due to the change direction in the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko moving away from the sun and the increase in the slowing of data rates received from the spacecraft.
The comet's movement away from the sun resulted in Rosetta's fading of power. Officials, however, confirmed that the collision will not be as hard as it will be at a speed of walking pace, but since the spacecraft was not designed for such function, some of its components might be destroyed due to the landing impact.
ESA made it a point to make the most out of the final stage as the satellite comes to the end of its journey. They wanted to make the closest measurements and images as the spacecraft approaches collision. Rosetta did not fail them as they got the best shots and high-resolution images of the closest view on Comet 67P, BBC reported.
Rosetta arrived its destination and began its mission to follow a comet's trajectory around the sun in 1996. ESA estimated the project to be roughly around 1.4 billion euros ($1.57 billion).
Rosetta did not fail ESA on its mission of gathering and sending back significant data to the earth. It even managed to capture an image of the final resting place of Philae, a lander that ended up trapped in between rocks after it failed and bounced on the surface of the comet. No one knew how it looked like after the landing until Rosetta came and captured a picture of it, CNN reported.
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