ESA's comet

Updated January 21, 2014 12:45:07

The comet-chasing probe Rosetta has woken up and is operational after a 31-month hibernation, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

The ESA sent out a tweet confirming Rosetta's awakening, mimicking the signal sent back from deep space by the probe.

'Hello, world!'

- ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) January 20, 2014

A webcast showed jubilant scientists at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, as the all-is-well signal came in.

Europe's most ambitious exploration of space, the craft was launched in 2004 on a trek of 7 billion kilometres around the inner Solar System.

Its goal is to rendezvous in August with a comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, and in November send down a lander to carry out experiments on the icy wanderer.

Comets are clusters of ice and dust which are believed to be remnants from the very birth of our star system.

Analysing this primeval matter should unlock secrets of how the Solar System formed and possibly how life on Earth was sparked.

Rosetta was placed in hibernation as it was so far from the Sun that light was too dim to power its solar array.

Scientists had to wait more than eight hours before getting the precious signal, sent from a distance of more than 800 million kilometres, to confirm that it had woken up

'It was a fairy-tale ending to a tense chapter,' ESA said in a press release.

My antennas started tingling a few hours ago with all the shouting and wonderful #wakeuprosetta messages. Thank you!

- ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) January 20, 2014

AFP

Topics:spacecraft, space-exploration, astronomy-space, science-and-technology, european-union

First posted January 21, 2014 07:34:39