Name: How to land on a comet
Uploaded: 2015-04-09T15:03:30Z
Duration: 17 min 37 s
Description: As manager of the Rosetta mission, Fred Jansen was responsible for the successful 2014 landing of a probe on the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this fascinating and funny talk, Jansen reveals some of the intricate calculations that went into landing the Philae probe on a comet 500 million kilometers from Earth -- and shares some incredible photographs taken along the way.

As manager of the Rosetta mission, Fred Jansen was responsible for the successful 2014 landing of a probe on the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this fascinating and funny talk, Jansen reveals some of the intricate calculations that went into landing the Philae probe on a comet 500 million kilometers from Earth -- and shares some incredible photographs taken along the way.

How to land on a comet

Guiding a spacecraft to orbit and land on a comet transformed what humanity knows about the solar system’s beginnings. The Rosetta mission traveled 500 million kilometers and achieved several historic firsts, including landing a probe on a moving comet. Stunning discoveries followed: the comet holds ancient material and would float in water due to its low density, and erupts with 100 million kilos of gas and dust per day near the sun. These revelations help unlock the cosmic puzzle of how water and organic molecules arrived on Earth.