Throughout human history, comets have been distant, mysterious heavenly bodies. The hunks of rock and ice streak through the sky, streaming bright tails of gas as the sun warms them.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, mankind finally made contact with one. The Rosetta spacecraft defied all odds and dropped its payload, a comet-sniffing probe named Philae, on a cold, speeding target more than 300 million miles from Earth.<\/p>\n
Although scientists aren\u2019t yet sure whether the probe will be able to anchor itself securely, for now its systems are operational and responsive. This comes as the climax of a decade-long mission. . . .<\/p>\n
Landing a 220-pound probe on a 2.5-mile-wide comet is no small step for mankind. The comet hurtles around the sun at a speed of 84,000 miles per hour and doesn\u2019t even have the decency to be smooth and evenly shaped, as comets so often appear to be in images.<\/p>\n
Instead, the landing target is pitted and uneven, with the appearance of a child\u2019s Play-Doh impression of a duck.<\/p>\n
Tensions were high in the European Space Agency\u2019s mission control room in Darmstadt, Germany, on Wednesday as the clock ticked closer to the proposed landing window. At 4 a.m. Eastern time, the team watched as Rosetta successfully ejected Philae, giving it a push toward the comet. Without thrusters or an engine, Philae simply dropped toward the piece of the comet that scientists thought it was most likely to successfully land on.<\/p>\n
Then, a sigh of relief \u2014 Philae and Rosetta made satellite contact with each other. Without that connection, the probe would have been functionally lost.<\/p>\n
With that final pre-landing checkpoint met, mission control hunkered down for seven hours of nerve-racking free fall, until Philae\u2019s sensors finally confirmed a landing at 11:03 a.m. Eastern time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That\u2019s quite a feat of engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,44],"tags":[3344,3436,3435,2683],"class_list":["post-20193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nature","category-technology","tag-comets","tag-european-space-agency","tag-rosetta-mission","tag-space-exploration"],"yoast_head":"\n
Landing on a comet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Landing on a comet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-14T10:37:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-13T13:38:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/11\/13\/comet-insitu_wide-5c726e9de407bf8dd2a056c4b17081c7112041a2-s700-c85.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/\",\"name\":\"Landing on a comet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-14T10:37:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-13T13:38:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Landing on a comet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Landing on a comet","description":"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Landing on a comet","og_description":"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2014-11-14T10:37:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-11-13T13:38:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/11\/13\/comet-insitu_wide-5c726e9de407bf8dd2a056c4b17081c7112041a2-s700-c85.jpg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/","name":"Landing on a comet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-11-14T10:37:52+00:00","dateModified":"2014-11-13T13:38:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"A probe from the European Space Agency landed on a comet, an object just two and half miles wide, 300 million miles away.\u00a0 That's quite a feat of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/11\/landing-on-a-comet\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Landing on a comet"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"The](\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2014\/11\/13\/comet-insitu_wide-5c726e9de407bf8dd2a056c4b17081c7112041a2-s700-c85.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\n