After 10 years of space pursuit, the Rosetta spacecraft finally reached the celestial body hundreds of millions of kilometers away. What efforts have humans made during this period?

The Rosetta spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2004 cost about 654.38+300 million euros. Although it was launched early, in order to get close to Jupiter's comet 67P, Rosetta chased it in outer space for 654.38+00 years, and it didn't reach the vicinity of comet 67P until 2065.438+04.

After entering outer space, the Rosetta spacecraft began to fly around the sun in order to increase its speed to the same speed as comet 67P, and flew over the earth at close range three times in 2005, 2007 and 2009. In addition, in 20 10, it also flew over the 2 1 rutsia asteroid with a distance of 3 168 km.

In May of 20 14, the Rosetta spacecraft orbited Comet 67P, explored at close range, and sent photos and data back to the ground continuously. The photo shows that comet 67P is like a "huge chicken leg" flying alone in the dark outer space.

For us, comet 67P is an extraterrestrial world with no life at all, no colorful flowers, no mountains and rivers, no bridges and rivers, no sound, and terrible silence. But here you can see another kind of scenery, brighter stars and small celestial bodies flying nearby.

Comet 67P has photographed many elongated small celestial bodies nearby, which means that the relative speed between small celestial bodies and comet 67P is very fast. How fast? It's dozens of times faster than the bullet that just came out of the gun. So comet 67P is an extraterrestrial world that is not suitable for human survival. However, if you think hard here, you will get twice the result with half the effort.

Since the advent of human civilization, we have been fascinated by this starry sky overhead. With the continuous progress of science and technology, our exploration of the universe has never stopped. So far, let's see what achievements we have made in exploring space.

1. New Horizon will fly to Pluto to explore the farthest planet in the solar system.

For decades, humans have been launching various detectors to explore the planets in the solar system. Now, it's time to visit the farthest planet Pluto. The American probe "New Horizon" is scheduled to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center with the help of the Cosmos -5 rocket at 13 (Beijing time 18).

2. Gravity theory and cosmology

Quantum theory and relativity are the two pillars of physics in the 20th century, and they are also the most brilliant achievements of physics in the 20th century. However, the research progress of Einstein's most important general theory of relativity is not satisfactory.

Other findings:

1. Kepler telescope: the "big cousin" who discovered the earth.

The Kepler mission, named after johannes kepler, a famous German astronomer who lived in16th century to17th century, is the first spacecraft dedicated to detecting terrestrial planets outside our solar system. It flies around the sun, and its orbit basically coincides with the earth's orbit, with a period of about 372 days.

Since its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in March 2009, Kepler telescope has discovered more than 65,438+0,000 terrestrial planets and more than 3,000 planetary candidates. It is reported that among the discovered planets, 12 is likely to have life.

But none of these news is as exciting as today's news-the nearest exoplanet kepler-452b has been discovered (0/400 light-years from Earth/kloc-). Although this is almost an unreachable distance, it still ignites a new round of yearning for space immigration.

Second, a new vision: the first clear photo of Pluto

July 14 this year is definitely an extraordinary day for many astronomy enthusiasts. On this day, the American Mars probe "New Vision" sent back a signal from 5.2 billion kilometers away, confirming that it flew over Pluto and became the first human probe to detect this distant dwarf planet.

This meeting revealed the true face of Pluto. The photos sent back by New Horizons show that there is a huge heart-shaped bright area on this brown planet with a width of 2000 kilometers. This surprise from the universe also shocked the world, and netizens from all over the world said that it was "so cute".