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European Space Agency (ESA) has been monitoring its comet tracking spacecraft ESA Rosetta, which will swing by Earth on November 13 to pick up energy. This is spacecraft’s final leg of journey to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Earlier, the spacecraft had gone three planetary swings around the Earth. And this time it will set for another some years of journey as part of its 10 year journey period.
The spacecraft will be the closest to Earth at 08:45 CET.
This swing by will also contribute the details of its expedition it did throughout the solar system. Apart from that, it will also shed light on the outer solar system.
As the part of its schedule, the spacecraft will fly by an asteroid 21 Lutetia in July next year and then only it will be active in 2014 to set for the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The comet will conserve its energy by staying in hibernation in between 2011 and 2014.
The comets can shed light about the history of the solar system as they have the same chemical composition to that of the other planets in the solar system. So ESA Rosetta will start its mission by deploying a lander there in 2014.
