If you've ever wondered what it sounds like when landing on a comet, you're in luck. When the Rosetta Mission's Philae Lander made history by touching down on a comet's surface last week, one of its instruments recorded the sound and sent the audio file to Earth.
Now, the European Space Agency (ESA) is making that audio file available to the public.
Sure, it sounds like just a simple "thud," but that one sound told astronomers a lot about Philae's first landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
"The Philae lander came into contact with a soft layer several centimeters thick. Then, just milliseconds later, the feet encountered a hard, perhaps icy layer on 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko," says German Aerospace Center researcher Klaus Seidensticker.
Of course, this is the sound file from Philae's first landing. The craft bounced twice, making a total of three landings, before finding itself in the shadow of a cliff. However, those bounces gave the lander a chance to measure the magnetic field of the comet in three different spots. These three bounces also suggest that the surface of Comet 67P has harder ice on its surface than we imagined.
Unfortunately, Philae's final landing spot put its solar panels in shadow, meaning that it did not get enough sunlight to keep its onboard battery going. After a few days, Philae went into hibernation, but not before collecting about 80 percent of its main science data, which scientists are still studying.
However, there's still a chance that Philae may wake up. Before the craft fell asleep, the Rosetta team managed to turn the lander's solar panels so that they can catch some sunlight once Comet 67P gets closer to the sun. The team is hoping that the craft will wake up sometime next spring and continue its scientific mission.
Meanwhile, the Rosetta spacecraft continues its mission by orbiting the comet, taking photos and collecting data about its activity as it gets closer to the sun. Rosetta is also closing in on the Philae Lander's final location, narrowing it down to a small strip on the comet's surface.
We can, however, expect the ESA to release more data, images and even other sound files of the Philae Lander's historic, although short, life on a comet.
[Photo Credit: ESA]
