Dear everyone

This Wednesday, November 12, the ROSETTA mission by ESA will deploy its lander, PHILAE, onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft has been on its way for more than 10 years. All over Europe and North America, the involved scientists and everyone else following the mission will be holding their breath, while awaiting the positive confirmation of a soft touch-down.

Wednesday, starting at 15:15, we would like to invite all interested students and staff at IFA to watch and hopefully celebrate the landing with us in the Physics Auditorium. Søren Vrønning Hoffmann, who is involved in one of the scientific experiments onboard, will be watching with us.

It will be an informal event featuring some short talks and watching the live broadcast from the ESA mission control. Coffee and cake will be served from 15:00.

15:45-16:45 Short talks

Welcome by Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard (member of the ESA Science Programme Committee)

Technical overview of the mission, by René Tronsgaard Rasmussen (M.Sc.-student, SAC)

The COSAC experiment and how ASTRID2 is involved in the mission, by Søren Vrønning Hoffmann (ISA)

16:45-17:15 Expected landing confirmation

18:00-19:00 Expected first images from the surface

The talks will be in English. If you are unable to attend, you can also watch the broadcast on http://new.livestream.com/ESA/cometlanding

If you want to learn more, there is a "studenterkollokvium" (in Danish) this Monday at 14:15 by René. Read more here!

Also, check out these cool links (in Danish) about Søren's comet research:

videnskab.dk: Spændt dansk forsker vil finde livets oprindelse på komet (08 Nov 2014)

scitech.au.dk: Vores generations månelanding (08 Nov 2014)

All the best

Mia Sloth Lundkvist
René Tronsgaard Rasmussen