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The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully landed a spacecraft on a speeding comet that lies 310 million miles away from Earth. As a result, the scientists may find out
Explanation
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta mission, which included the Philae lander, successfully reached comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014 [3]. A primary scientific objective of this mission was to investigate the origin and evolution of the solar system by studying cometary composition [2]. Comets are considered primitive 'time capsules' containing material from the epoch of solar system formation [1]. Observations from Rosetta and Philae aimed to determine if comets played a critical role in seeding Earth with water and organic molecules, which are essential building blocks for life [1]. While the mission found that the water on 67P had a different isotopic signature than Earth's oceans, it successfully detected organic compounds like glycine and phosphorus, supporting the theory that cometary impacts could have delivered the necessary ingredients for life to the young Earth.
Sources
- [1] https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia18403-rotation-and-shape-of-rosetta-missions-target-comet/
- [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)
- [2] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10229468/