Where are you, Philae? ESA searches the comet’s surface desperately, hoping against hope…

Where are you, Philae? ESA searches the comet’s surface desperately, hoping against hope…

Philae hasn't been heard from since it went into hibernation on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko -- and now the ESA is trying to find it.

The European Space Agency is conducting the world’s most expensive game of “Where’s Waldo?” as it scours the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for signs of the Philae lander.

While the mission to the comet has been a resounding success, scientists had hoped to gather more data from the lander, but things didn’t quite go according to plan when the lander’s harpoons failed to lock into the surface, causing it to bounce and then settle in a crevace away from the sunlight that was necessary to charge its batteries, according to an Engadget report.

Because the lander is so small, it is hard for ESA to spot it from the nearby Rosetta spacecraft. Even if Rosetta were to be able to capture Philae on film, it would be nothing more than a speck.

As a result, scientists have been going over high-resolution images of the area where they believe the lander likely ended up. And they’ve spotted five bright spots that are candidates for the Philae lander.

The scientists have narrowed the likely location to a 52-by-525 feet ellipse by using radio signals transmitted between Philae and Rosetta before the lander entered hibernation mode.

The problem: none of those identified candidates were found within the ellipse, although a few of them are pretty close.

So what’s next? Rosetta will have to get a little bit closer to the comet to take another high-resolution image from closer in. Hopefully, sunlight is able to reach Philae’s solar panels anyway as it nears the sun and Philae will wake up from hibernation. If it does that, it can then wake up and send radio signals that would better allow scientists to pinpoint its location.

Be social, please share!

Facebooktwittergoogle_plusredditpinterestlinkedintumblrmail