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Philae Lander

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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Definition

Philae is the lander of the ESA Rosetta mission which successfully landed on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12, 2014.

Overview

Philae is the first automated vehicle that successfully landed on the nucleus of a comet. It is part of the European mission ROSETTA. Its overall mass is 98 kg including a scientific payload of 27 kg. The name of the lander follows the name of a Nile island where an obelisk was found, whose association with the Rosetta stone helped Champollion to understand the meaning of hieroglyphs.

On November 12, 2014, the Philae lander was released from its mother spacecraft at a distance of about 3 AU from the Sun and 20 km from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to land after 7 h of free fall. The landing site (called Agilkia) was meant to be a relatively smooth terrain on the smaller lobe of comet 67P. Contact with the nucleus was reported at 15:34 UTC, but it turned out that the lander did not anchor at the surface and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris Est-Créteil, 61, av. du Général de Gaulle, 94010, Créteil Cedex, France

    Hervé Cottin

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  1. Hervé Cottin
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Correspondence to Hervé Cottin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Biología Molecular, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de Astrobiología (CAB), Inst. Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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© 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cottin, H. (2014). Philae Lander. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1745-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1745-4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Philae Lander
    Published:
    28 December 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1745-5

  2. Original

    Philae Lander
    Published:
    03 May 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_1745-4

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