Today is PerihelionDay! Scientists at the European Space Agency and beyond will be popping the champagne and donning party hats to mark 'Rosetta'sDay in the Sun'. And many ordinary punters like myself will be joining them on-line as this extraordinary space mission reaches its zenith. What this all means is that comet67P has travelled around in its orbit to reach its closest point to the sun in 6.5 years. As it does so, the sun's heat melts icy deposits in its body or nucleus and so the comet is firing off jets of dust and gas that create the comet's distinctive tail.
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| Credit ESA: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/02/11/new-perspectives-cometwatch-6-february/ |
As
in ancient times, astronomers on Earth can now track the flaming ball
with its streamer of light across our night skies. But for the first
time in history, we have a spacecraft sitting right on its tail,
hitching a ride. And if that's not wondrous enough, there's our
trusty Philaerobot
snuggled into a cliff wall on the comet itself while all this mayhem
kicks off around it. Vicariously, through our machines, we have been
getting a front row view of the fireworks show with mesmerising
photos of this alien world beamed back every day from Rosetta's
cameras. I can't resist the 'we'.
Partly because the Rosetta mission does feel like a feat of human
ingenuity and curiosity that we can all revel in. And partly because
the ESA have been so generous in sharing their data on their website
that its possible to feel like you're with them every step of the
way. In fact, they recently won an award for their educational
programmes around this mission, working with schools and teachers.
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| Credit ESA: http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2014/02/philae_descent/14277309-1-eng-GB/Philae_descent.jpg |
They
have also inspired artists like myself. Back in November I was
riveted by the unfolding drama of Philae'slanding.
Would it smash on the rocky surface? Would it more likely just bounce
off and drift into space given the comet's low-gravity? Would it be
able to talk to us or be just another dead machine on an alien
world? As it was, although it bounced three times and disappeared
from view, it managed to lodge under a cliff-face that sheltered it
from the heat of advancing perihelion and the fierce jets of
material. The scientific mission was highly successful with nearly
all its instruments working. For three days Philae ran an on-site
laboratory and up-loaded all its packets of data before going 'to
sleep'
when its solar batteries ran low. 'I'm
tired'
it tweeted. And then silence. A storyteller could hardly wish for
more of an Act One plot point.
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| Credit: http://www.egyptartsite.com/myth/raboat.jpg |
While
Philae slept, maybe for good, Rosetta was busy mapping the comet's
surface in a series of fly-bys, yielding these spellbinding images. I
was fascinated by the ESA's choice of Egyptianmythology
to name its '19 regions' as well as the mission itself. When I began
to research the old Egyptian stories, they seemed particularly apt.
Here was Philae descending into a cometary underworld where it
vanished from view, lost in the darkness. And the comet itself was
travelling back towards the sun, like the cyclical journeys of the
sun-god Ra moving across our skies only to disappear into Duat or the
underworld each night. I was moved to write a new poem sequence
tracing Rosetta and Philae's adventures on the other
side of the solar system. And my narrative is a mash-up of modern
space science and the ancient mythology. Here's one of the verses
from my 'Egyptian
Book of the Hours'
for Philae.
9
Duat
'I'm
tired,'
you twitter
a
tin-foil chick alone in the dark
and
packets of data dispatched
you
burrow into the hide
of
a frozen mammoth haunch;
dormant
not extinct, you're
descending
by robotic barque
into
an underworld cyber-space
where
a lab-coated Anubis
will
weigh your feather-heart.
Two
weeks hence, on 1st
September, I will be joining scientists and astronomers for our own
celebration of Rosetta's mission. 'To
Perihelion and Beyond!'
will be staged at the NationalSpace Centre
in Leicester. Our event will feature poems & performance, science
and story, and a 'Build
Your own Comet'
demo. And my Book of the Hours will be available as a scroll,
papyrus style, to cast a spell as we re-live Philae's
Descent into Duat.
Hopefully it will honour the storytellers of old as well as today's
space adventurers.
