Eternally Silent Rosetta -- She Resides On The Plains of Sais, Once More...

Just a quick follow-up here -- on ESA's final press release about the Rosetta mission's success. And the long-echoing poetry of the history, behind that name. It cascades small chills down my back, even thinking of it. . . smile.

It seems that Patrick Martin (the ESA Rosetta comet mission manager) has named the final resting place, where the Rosetta orbiter set down on Comet 67P. . . "Sais". Of course, it was at the temple from antiquity -- just an hour or so (on foot) outside of Memphis, Egypt -- near modern day Rashid -- at Sais, in fact, that the original earth-bound Rosetta Stone was first re-discovered by the French in modernity, in 1799.

It matters not that these were Napoleon's men -- Lieutenant Pierre-François Bouchard, to be precise -- it matters that the stone was preserved for the sake of science. [And so, even a barbarian may be taught manners, it seems.] From ESA, this afternoon, EU time, then -- a bit:

. . . .After contact was confirmed and the mission declared complete, Mission Manager Patrick Martin announced the name of the impact site.

He said, “The Rosetta Stone was originally located in Sais, and we shall name the impact point as such so we can finally say that Rosetta has come home to Sais.”

The mission was named after the Rosetta Stone, itself so named because it was found in a town called Rashid (Rosetta), having thought to have been moved from a temple in Sais.

Just as the Rosetta Stone was pivotal in understanding ancient language and history, so the vast treasure trove of Rosetta spacecraft data is changing our view on how comets and the Solar System formed. . . .

Now you know. . . and puzzling about other forms of radio silence -- hoping that they are not eternal -- as Rosetta's silence on the Sais plain shall be, here. Smile. . . .

नमस्ते