This lumpy, duck-shaped object would make a great centerpiece for any science nut. It may not be a lot to look at, but it's a great conversation starter. You're just a 3-D printer away from having your own scale model of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gersimenko, the comet that's been in the news a lot recently. It might become the first comet to successfully be landed on by a man-made spacecraft, and now, thanks to the ESA publicly releasing its dimensions, you can make your own accurate copy of the comet.
The ESA's Rosetta mission, launched in March 2004, is the closest a man-made spacecraft has ever come to a moving comet. Now, as the Rosetta craft is zeroing in on the comet, the ESA has been able to get extremely detailed pictures of the comet. This week, the agency released the dimensions it used to create a model of the comet, so that anyone who has access to a 3-D printer can make their very own 67P.
Rosetta has been flying very close to the comet 67P since August. This is the closest humans have ever come in proximity with a comet, and we are continually finding out more about it. In September, the ESA chose an area of the comet called "Site J" for Rosetta to land on, because it had fairly smooth terrain for a safe landing. Last week, the ESA announced that it will attempt to land the mission on the comet on November 12. The signal of whether the spacecraft landed successfully will reach Earth by about 5 a.m. EST.
It will be difficult to land the craft, because the comet is moving very quickly, and if the spacecraft tips over at any point during the landing, it won't have any way to pick itself up again.
Even if the landing is not successful, the Rosetta mission has still shed a great deal of light on comets.
The latest dimensions released by the ESA show that the comet is about 4.1 km (about 2.5 miles) wide at its widest point. Not all of the dimensions of the comet are currently known, because some of the comet is still covered by darkness. The model released this week is still a rough draft compared to the revisions that the ESA will most likely make as more is known about the comet in future weeks. Have you printed your own model of comet 67P? Let us know in the comments!
