Cape Canaveral: A pioneering robotic spacecraft shut down yesterday after radioing results of its first and probably last batch of scientific experiments from the surface of a comet, scientists said.
Batteries in the European Space Agency’s Philae comet lander drained, shutting down the washing machine-sized probe after a largely unscripted 57-hour mission.
Carried aboard the orbiting Rosetta mothership, Philae floated to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Thursday, but failed to deploy anchoring harpoons. It landed against a cliff or crater wall where there was little sunlight to recharge its batteries. Racing against the clock, scientists activated a series of automated experiments, the first to be conducted from the surface of a comet.
Philae’s last task was to reposition itself so that as the comet soars toward the sun, its batteries may recharge enough for a follow-on mission.
Burkina military restores constitution
OUAGADOUGOU: Burkina Faso’s military ruler yesterday said he had restored the constitution that was suspended when President Blaise Compaore was toppled after mass protests last month.
Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Zida, who declared himself head of state on November 1 after Compaore resigned and fled the country, said political figures had until 1200 GMT today to propose a leader of the transition to civilian rule.
The military, political parties and civil and religious leaders will sign an agreement today on the make-up of the transitional government.
Under this charter, a body made up of five soldiers, five opposition leaders, five members of the former president’s camp and eight traditional and religious leaders will select the president of the transition from the names proposed today.
The president, who will be barred from the next election, will then name a prime minister to appoint a 25-member government.
Congo declares its Ebola outbreak over
KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo declared its three-month Ebola outbreak officially over yesterday after 42 days without recording a new case of the disease.
Congo’s outbreak, which killed 49 of the 66 people infected in the remote northwestern Equateur province, is unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa, where at least 5,177 people are known to have died in the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
“No new cases have been registered since October 4,” Health Minister Felix Kabange told reporters in Kinshasa.
“After 42 days of active searching, the government declaresthe end of the outbreak of the Ebola virus,” he added.
Forty-two days is the internationally-accepted period for declaring Ebola over as it represents two full cycles of the maximum possible incubation period of the disease. REUTERS
