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A burst of sunshine in the spring could be just the wake up call for Europe’s comet lander. Scientists raised hopes that as the Philae lander nears the sun its solar panel powered battery will recharge, and the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet will send a second round of scientific data back to Earth. Since landing with a bounce on the comet, Philae has already sent back reams of data that scientists are eagerly examining. But there were fears its mission would be cut short because it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff. Its signal went silent after its primary battery ran out. Shortly before that happened, the European Space Agency decided to attempt to tilt the lander’s biggest solar panel toward the sun a last-ditch maneuver that scientists believe may have paid off. “We are very confident at some stage it will wake up again and we can achieve contact,” Stephan Ulamec, the lander manager, told The Associated Press. read more..http://www.tech-shutter.com/science/scientists-confident-comet-lander-will-wakeup/

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 23, 2015 There has been a significant increase in the amount of water "pouring" out of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the comet on which the Rosetta mission's Philae lander touched down in November 2014. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet was releasing the earthly equivalent of 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water into space every second at the end of August 2014. The observations were made by NASA Full article

Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why Rosetta’s Comet Is Shaped Like a Duck.

Scientists Are Trying to Figure Out Why Rosetta’s Comet Is Shaped Like a Duck

Pasadena CA (JPL) Dec 12, 2014 The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has found the water vapor from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to be significantly different from that found on Earth. The discovery fuels the debate on the origin of our planet's oceans. The measurements, by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument, were made in the month following the arrival of the s Full article