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| Photo credit: http://www.esa.int/ESA |
After seven months of hibernation in a dark corner of a lonely comet 67P, Philae has finally woken up! At 2228 CEST, The European Space Agency, received about 85 seconds of communication from the lander that made the comet 67P/ Churyumov/ Gerasimenko its home in November last year.
In the 85 seconds of contact that Philae made via its mothership, Rosetta (read 5 reasons why Rosetta is a Superstar), scientists at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center received some data packets that show that Philae had probably woken up earlier but failed to contact Earth.
Nevertheless, Philae’s battery is now recharged 24 Watts of its 140 Watt Hour capacity and will get better as the comet is approaching the Sun. Philae’s revival also means that scientists can now get access to all the data that Philae had recorded before it went into hibernation but could deliver to Earth.
There are exciting days ahead for Philae as life lives his life on a comet and for the ESA who will have months of data to ponder over
Below are a few of our older posts to help revise on Rosetta and her mission and follow CoffeeTableScience to stay updated about Philae!
