Stunning image mosaic captures Philae's bouncy landing on comet 67P

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Philae, we hardly knew ye :frowning:

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Wow, i had heard over a podcast this morning that the distance travelled throughout the bounces was quite far but seeing it in pictures is mind boggling. I wonder if it was an upright bounce or if it tumbled at any point.

How slow do you have to go to orbit a comet? Or is it more like station-keeping than orbiting?

Mr. Munroe has partially addressed this question.

http://whatif.xkcd.com/68/

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How Zapruder-like.

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Boing Boing! Boing Boing!

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Damn, It found one of the only shadows down… up… there.

Wait for a closer approach, more sunlight, power up, flip it on it’s back and boost it into a well lit area with the landing thruster?

I dunno, come on space agencies, we know how crazy smart you are.

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More like… Boing… Boing… Thud!

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Just goes to show you. A skier will hit the only tree on the slope; a skateboarder will find the only pothole in the road. My dad managed to fly a hang glider into the only pile of rocks on a huge hill in the middle of Central Oregon.
One of those unwritten laws of gravity and the buttered side of toast.

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It may be because we tend to follow the direction we look at (I heard that somewhere). If we look at the obstacle, we are more likely to run into it than to miss it. The trick is to not look directly.

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It probably kept bouncing along the surface until it hit something vertical, which also casts a shadow.

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