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I wish we lived in a world where the layman - the Joe Nobody - could grasp how truly momentous this is. Too often the gravity of such endeavors is lost too qui

I wish we lived in a world where the layman - the Joe Nobody - could grasp how truly momentous this is. Too often the gravity of such endeavors is lost too quickly, from our collective imagination. We need to reanimate the sense of wonder among the non-science inclined people everywhere, to make more of these efforts possible. Live feed of the press conference which should start in a bit: rosetta.esa.int Some cool links: http://wpc.50e6.edgecastcdn.net/8050E6/mmedia-http/download/public/videos/2014/01/011/1401_011_AR_EN.mp4 http://wpc.50e6.edgecastcdn.net/8050E6/mmedia-http/download/... http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/avZGG4q_460sa_v1.gif http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/avZGG4q_460sa_v1.gif http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/ http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/

vmarsy 12y ago
That 3rd link is very cool. Do you know what does the "comet speed" means on it? Is it its speed relative to the earth ? It's going at 18km per second, so around 65 000 km/h (40,000 mph). People manage to land something that left from earth starting at a speed of 0.00km/h and then traveled 6.5 billion km to an object going at that speed, all of this happening 500 million km away. It is amazing!
- utoku 12y ago
  Its speed is most likely relative to Sun. Earth moves at about 30km/s relative to sun. So that's your minimal starting speed.
  - spiritplumber 12y ago
    Speeds are generally given relative to the object being orbited, so in this case the Sun.