Rosetta : The Search For The Origin Of Life

The Search For The Origin Of Life

Life On Earth (Source: Discovery Channel/Google Images)

Life is present anywhere and everywhere we see; in the trees, the plants, the birds, the animals and even in the most remote places on this planet. It can survive the greatest of destruction's, the grandest of explosions and still continue to thrive. Such an amazing thing life is! While "some" humans are trying to find out whether "life" is present only on our planet Earth, we might be closing in to finding the origin of life on this pale blue dot.

ESA's Rosetta Spacecraft :

Rosetta Spacecraft Model

The ESA or the European Space Agency launched a space probe named Rosetta more than a decade ago on 2 March 2004. Rosetta was sent to perform a detailed study of its target, a comet named 67P/Churyumove-Gerasimenko. Rosetta space probe has been racing towards the comet since 10 years and has traveled a whooping 4 billion miles. The spacecraft after its launch has orbited our planet Earth thrice and the red planet Mars once as part of its trajectory. The purpose of this winding path around the two planets was to use the gravity of these two planets for a speed boost. Along with that, during its 10 year period before closing in on the target comet, Rosetta also flew by asteroids - Steins and Lutetia. During its decade long journey, the spacecraft also went into Deep Space Hibernation for 31 months and then woke up from hibernation to finally get into orbit around its prey comet - 67P/C-G or Cherry-Gerry(its nickname).

Rosetta is the first ever space probe to rendezvous with a comet. The probe inserted itself into the orbit around 67P on the 6th of August'14 and will continue to do so for some time. The probe has now reduced the relative velocity between itself and the comet to just 1 m/s which I believe is itself a great achievement for those controlling Rosetta from our home planet. The probe won't itself land on the comet but will deploy a lander named "Philae Lander" on the surface of the comet 67P. The lander is equipped with ice screws on its legs and harpoons as the comet's gravity isn't strong enough to hold the Philae on its surface. The lander weighs 100 kg and is the most important part of the mission. The lander will collect samples of water vapor, dust surface of the comet, analyse it and send the data back to the Space Agency on Earth. One of its objective is to study the chemical composition of hydrogen in the water on the comet. If it is the same as that to the hydrogen here on Earth, it will suggest that comets might have filled up our Oceans when they smashed into our planet many billion years ago. The Philae Lander has been scheduled to land on 67P in November 2014 if everything goes well.

First Pictures sent by Rosetta when it approached comet 67P/C-G to enter into its orbit :

Closest Picture by Rosetta

Rosetta Appraching the Comet

Comet Activity

One of the most primary objective of the Rosetta Spacecraft is to find out whether the comet is home to any of the chemical compounds responsible for LIFE. If such is the case, there exists a very strong possibility that life might have started on our planet due to some compounds from another world, the comet being the transporter. Scientists have always been fascinated by the idea of life originating on other planets. The concept that a comet from outer space initiated the process of life on our little blue planet is rather bewildering. Just imagine, that the foundation of every living thing around you was laid on some very distant planet which we might not even be aware of, and only a piece of icy-rock that slammed into our planet is the reason of us being here today reading this blog post. Incredible, isn't it? But, this is just one possibility of the array of possibilities....

"Rosetta Spacecraft has created history as it is the first EVER probe to orbit a comet and hopefully land on it. There are endless possibilities to what the Philae Lander after landing on the comet may reveal to us here on Earth. Whatever it may be, I think we humans should be prepared to be amazed! Since its origin, man has only looked around and has had the curiosity to find out why does something exist and how it got there. I think its time we find out how WE got here......"

EDIT(08/20/2014) : Comparison of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to the City of Los Angeles.