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With the masses of the comet and the spacecraft being relatively close, it's hard to tell whether Rosetta is co-orbiting the sun or orbiting the comet itself.
by jeroen94704 12y ago
With the masses of the comet and the spacecraft being relatively close, it's hard to tell whether Rosetta is co-orbiting the sun or orbiting the comet itself.
- exDM69 12y ago> With the masses of the comet and the spacecraft being relatively close No, they're not close at all. The comet is three by five kilometers across, and the mass is around 3.14 * 10^12 kg. The orbiter at launch weighs in at 2900 kg and the lander is 100 kg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67P/Churyumov%E2%80%93Gerasimenko http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67P/Churyumov%E2%80%93Gerasimen...
- BtM909 12y agoI think jeroen94704 is saying "With the masses of the comet, and the spacecraft being relatively close" [comma added]
- dalke 12y agoI disagree. At the very least it would need to be "mass" not "masses". The closest statement should be more like "With the mass of the comet, and the spacecraft being relatively distant."
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- madaxe_again 12y agoIt's orbiting the sun, however its orbit is such that it will take it around the comet in a roughly triangular shape - but this isn't the same thing as orbiting.