20 July, 1969, was the day when history was made — a human stepping on our moon’ surface. After 45 years of manned landing on moon, we saw this Wednesday another breathtaking phenomenon happening at the far end of our solar system — a washing machine size robot probe, Philae, landing on the icy 67P comet, nicknamed as Dirty Snowball. It looks like a dream — cruising in space for 10 years on a 6.4 billion km mission and then landing on a small icy comet which itself was traveling at the stunning speed of 18 km/second.
It’s the desire to learn about our origin, how our solar system and life on earth came into being and to see through the hidden secrets of the universe of which we are a negligible tiny part, which has put so many curious minds, scientists, engineers and technicians to do this first wonder of 21st century. I find their success a great leap for the mankind. Congratulations to European Space Agency (ESA) and good luck to Philae to get enough solar energy to keep its battery charged for an indefinite period.
MASOOD KHAN
Jubail, Saudi Arabia
