What is the Rosetta comet mission, when did the spacecraft launch and what did it discover?

The Rosetta comet mission will soon come to an end with a dramatic controlled crash landing signalling the conclusion to its epic voyage.

The Rosetta’s one way mission into deep dark space has now run its course, but for those of us who are not astronomers, what is it all about?

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Here’s the lowdown on the mission…

What is the Rosetta comet mission?

Rosetta is a probe built by the European Space Agency (ESA) costing around £1 billion.

The probe was built to chase down, orbit and land on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P), which circles the sun between the orbits of Jupiter and the Earth.

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On its ten year journey to the comet the lander has travelled almost 500 million miles from Earth and passed by Mars and a number of asteroids.

When did the spacecraft launch?

Originally scheduled for 2003, the launch of the probe was postponed due to the failure of a rocket.

After two unsuccessful attempts it eventually took off in March 2004 from Kourou in French Guiana.

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What did it discover?

The probe has collected a significant amount of data about the make-up of the comet, shedding light on the chemical components that make up the comet.

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It has also collected information about the water vapour from comet 67P, recording that it is significantly different to that found on Earth.

This makes it very unlikely that the water found on Earth has come from comets such as this one.

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