A spacecraft that has been on a decade-long trip to observe a comet is set to wake up from a two-year nap; the craft will now embark on the "home stretch" of its journey.
If the mission, dubbed "Rosetta", is successful this will be the first time a craft actually lands on a comet, a University of Michigan news release reported.
The researchers will look at measurements taken at the comet site in hopes of gaining insight into how solar wind relates to the formation of solar storms. Solar winds are "[streams]of charged particles emanating from the Sun," while storms are sudden increases in activity that can harm astronauts and satellites.
"How the solar wind operates is one of the biggest outstanding questions about the solar system today. By studying how it interacts with cometary gases, we can learn a lot about the composition of the solar wind," Tamas Gombosi, the Rollin M. Gerstacker Professor of Engineering in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, said in the news release.
In the Sun's equator the wind tends to move at a relatively slow pace; it often increases in speed when it reaches higher latitudes. These winds have been linked to solar storms, but it is difficult to observe the winds' interactions from an Earthly vantage point.
"But comets pass through all of it. With their help, we can study the fast solar wind," Gombosi said.
The craft will also study complex chemical reactions in the comet that could not be observed from far away. The researchers will look at how quickly the object's core is turning from a solid to a gas (sublimating) as well as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide levels.
"It's very difficult to observe some of the chemical species when they're far away and faint. Carbon dioxide is probably the second most abundant species at most comets, but it's not been observed in the thousands we've looked at from Earth," Michael Combi, the Freeman Devold Miller Collegiate Research Professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences, said.
Comets are extremely ancient; they were present in the nebula that birthed the solar system. The researchers look forward to treating them as "archaeological artifacts" that could help them learn about the birth and early days of the universe.
"On the lander, there's a camera that can look straight down like you're standing up and looking at the ground. Then there's a panoramic camera that can look out and see a picture of the horizon. It'll be fun to see what this landscape looks like," Combi said. "It'll be like standing on a comet."
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