Comments: "Rosetta are you better, are you well, well, well?"

I heard this story on the radio tonight, and thought you might blog about it. I wonder if the name is linked to the Rosetta Stone.

In other news, the very small (less than 10mm long, 3mm wide) wasps visiting our laurel hedge are nothing more interesting than the second most common wasps in the UK, Vespula germanica. Boo!

Posted by verity74 on 6 August, 2014 at 7:50 PM

You're exactly right verity, it was named after the Rosetta Stone.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Why_Rosetta

"Just as the Rosetta Stone provided the key to an ancient civilisation, so ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will unlock the mysteries of the oldest building blocks of our Solar System – the comets. As the worthy successor of Champollion and Young, Rosetta will allow scientists to look back 4600 million years to an epoch when no planets existed and only a vast swarm of asteroids and comets surrounded the Sun."

I'm just amazed that it has travelled 4 billion miles, and that the pictures are brought to you by what is now 13 year old technology (in fact, because of the time it has taken to travel to the comet, all the technology is now at least a decade old).

Posted by Blue Witch on 7 August, 2014 at 8:52 AM