Ready for Landing

AUDIO: We’re at the comet! (cheers)
Flight controllers were celebrating back in August when the Rosetta spacecraft arrived at its destination — Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. And they hope to be celebrating again later this month. Rosetta will deploy a small probe that’s scheduled to land on the comet in just a few days.
It took more than 10 years and four trips around the Sun for Rosetta to reach the comet — a “leftover” from the birth of the solar system.
The comet is a big chunk of rock and ice. It actually looks like two chunks connected by a narrow neck. The comet is quite dark, and there’s not a lot of exposed ice at its surface.
Comets and asteroids are of special interest because they preserve a record of conditions in the early solar system. Studying them can reveal details about the birth and evolution of Earth and the other planets.
Rosetta’s probe will settle to a gentle landing on the comet, then fire a harpoon into it to keep itself from drifting away. It’ll measure the