TORONTO – The European Space Agency has chosen a landing site for its historic Rosetta comet mission.
In just under two months the Philae lander, part of the Rosetta mission, will descend onto a comet, a space first.
Site J – the name of the chosen location – is on the comet’s head and measures 4 km across at its widest point.
READ MORE: IN PHOTOS – Rosetta spacecraft arrives safely at comet
Once the 100 kg lander departs from Rosetta on Nov. 11, a harpoon will be fired into the comet’s surface in order to anchor it (comets have very little gravity) to the surface.
Several locations were considered, but Site J was unanimously chosen by the ESA’s Landing Site Selection Group comprised of engineers and scientists as the best location for Philae.
“As we have seen from recent close-up images, the comet is a beautiful but dramatic world – it is scientifically exciting, but its shape makes it operationally challenging,” Stephan Ulamec, Philae Lander Manager at the DLR German Aerospace Center said in a news conference.
“None of the candidate landing sites met all of the operational criteria at the 100% level, but Site J is clearly the best solution.”
Once on the comet’s surface, Philae will conduct various scientific analyses helping scientists to better understand the composition and origin of comets.
It took the Rosetta spacecraft roughly 10 years to reach the comet.
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