At 11:00 am today, January 20, 2014, the Rosetta probe has met the expectations of the “Wake up, Rosetta!” Campaign. promoted by ESA and has been activated after two and a half years of hibernation to carry out a pioneering mission: to be the first to study a comet in detail , both orbiting around it and collecting samples of its surface. At that time, the internal alarm clock of the vehicle has activated its systems, but it will not be until the sunset of the day when contact is established with the probe from Earth and it is known if it has successfully resumed its activity.
Rosetta began its space journey a decade ago and has been on standby for the last 31 months with the aim of saving energy and being in the ideal position to start tracking “67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko”, a periodic comet that is It is trapped in the vicinity of the Sun. During the moments before its hibernation, it oriented itself so that its solar panels always pointed towards the star and began to rotate on itself to maintain stability. The only systems that remained operational were the on-board computer and the heaters, essential for subsisting in deep space.
After checking its instruments over the next few months, we will be able to see the first images of the comet, to later witness the landing of the lander on the moving surface of said celestial body for the first time . At the moment, ESA offers a live broadcast of the awakening of the popular probe, which promises to unravel as much primal information as the object that gave it its name, the Rosetta stone, a block of granite that made it possible to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing. .
According to astronomers, this mission is key to clarifying the role of comets in our planetary system , which have proven to be of vital importance by acting as transmitting vehicles for the matter responsible for the appearance of life.
