The European Space Agency (ESA) has landed a spacecraft on a comet for the first time ever. The unmanned Rosetta Probe this morning released a lander to the comet's icy surface after a decade-long mission. The team is still testing the status of the lander, but they’re hopeful that this is beginning of a major fact-finding mission. Scientists have likened the trillion or so comets in our solar system to time capsules that are virtually unchanged since the earliest moments of the universe. By studying one up close in detail, they hope to learn more about the origins of comets, stars, planets...and even life on Earth. We’ll talk with one of three U.S. scientists who have instruments on board the Rosetta about what scientists hope to learn from this ongoing mission.
Guests:
Mark Hofstadter, planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena; he designed a device on the Rosetta that will be used to measure the temperature of the comet.