KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County's Window to the Universe presents “The Rosetta Probe – Landing on a Comet.”

The speaker is Dr. Bill Haddon, president of Friends of the Taylor Observatory.   

Admission for the talk, a planetarium show and night sky viewing through the Taylor telescope is $5 for adults, $3 for 12 and under.  

On Nov. 11 the Rosetta Space Probe will launch its landing craft Philae toward the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The Rosetta Probe, launched by the European Space Agency over 10 years ago, had its rendezvous with the comet on Aug. 14.

Twenty-one on-board scientific instruments will provide data to support or disprove theories suggesting that comet impacts laid down the framework for the origin of life on planet Earth.  

Join the Taylor Observatory for a discussion of this historic event, an important first in the exploration of our Solar System.  

In the talk, Haddon, who is a research chemist, will describe this odyssey of solar system exploration, one of the most challenging experiments conducted so far in our efforts to understand our existence on Earth.  

On its journey through the solar system Rosetta has flown by two asteroids, providing photograph with unprecedented detail.

Now, its close encounter with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has brought the space probe within a few kilometers of the comet – a distance about equal to that between Kelseyville and Lakeport, but 200 million miles from earth.

The location is 5725 Oak Hills Lane in Kelseyville.

For further information visit www.taylorobservatory.org or call 707-262-4121.