It's Alive!!! Philae wakes up ...

[klr]

Philae comet lander wakes up, says European Space Agency

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.

It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the Sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

An account linked to the probe tweeted the message, "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?"

On its blog, Esa said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds on Saturday in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.

...

continued: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33126885

[JimC]

It's a clever ruse by the Space Lizards...

[Svartalf]

great news anyway, we'll have more data on the space lizards then

[DaveDodo007]

What shirt was the scientist wearing.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

What shirt was the scientist wearing.

He has learnt his lesson. It was this one...

[mistermack]

The most interesting find by the probe is that it's water has a different signature from the water on Earth. So either this comet has a different origin from the early comets, or Earth didn't get it's water from comets at all.

Also, it's looking likely that the comet is a higher percentage of water than they expected.
Since they said that their sampling drill didn't go into it because it was too icy.

I wonder how water manages to get together in space? I'm guessing that early planets or moons had big oceans of water, collected by gravity because of their large size, And then they get hit by another planet or moon, or shattered by a supernova, so you get big blobs of water in space that freeze solid.

[cronus]

When big stars explode they make all sorts of stuff. A star that's a hundred or five hundred times the diameter of the sun doesn't have to make much water for it to be a lot from our point of view.

[mistermack]

When big stars explode they make all sorts of stuff. A star that's a hundred or five hundred times the diameter of the sun doesn't have to make much water for it to be a lot from our point of view.

Of course, that's where every element comes from.
But it doesn't explain how it gets clumped together, in comet sized lumps.
When a supernova goes off, you can bet your life that everything gets blasted into tiny bits, all shooting away from each other at super high speeds.

You need a big body like the Earth, or Saturn, to hoover up the individual particles of water and clump them together.

[cronus]

When big stars explode they make all sorts of stuff. A star that's a hundred or five hundred times the diameter of the sun doesn't have to make much water for it to be a lot from our point of view.

Of course, that's where every element comes from.
But it doesn't explain how it gets clumped together, in comet sized lumps.
When a supernova goes off, you can bet your life that everything gets blasted into tiny bits, all shooting away from each other at super high speeds.

You need a big body like the Earth, or Saturn, to hoover up the individual particles of water and clump them together.

Water is dark matter.

[mistermack]

Water is dark matter.

No, water isn't dark.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It appears that some pretty funky chemicals were sniffed by Philae during its tumble and transmitted during its all-too-brief contact with its mother! This is why we haven't heard much from it lately - it's high as a kite on polyoxymethylene!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33720951

[rainbow]

It appears that some pretty funky chemicals were sniffed by Philae during its tumble and transmitted during its all-too-brief contact with its mother! This is why we haven't heard much from it lately - it's high as a kite on polyoxymethylene!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33720951

Prof Mark McCaughrean, the European Space Agency's senior science advisor, told BBC News: "Imagine you want to build a house and you go to a forest, where there are trees, mud and rocks. You could make a house out of that, but it would be hard work.

"Well, we've now discovered the comet is more like a hardware shop - lots of pre-made building blocks, like door frames, bricks etc. It gives you a head start.

What drivel!

[JimC]

Not so much drivel as a very clumsy attempt at making an analogy...

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Not so much drivel as a very clumsy attempt at making an analogy...

Yep. My thoughts too.

[rainbow]

Not so much drivel as a very clumsy attempt at making an analogy...

Yep. My thoughts too.

OK, but dumbing down science doesn't really help much.
IMHO.