Philae’s historic comet landing

Nearly three months after the Philae probe’s historic landing on a comet, European Space Agency scientists still don’t know where it is. After landing, the probe bounced and likely settled in a shadowy crater, quickly draining its battery due to a lack of sunlight.

Now Nature reports that ESA is considering sending Rosetta — the probe that’s been orbiting the comet 67P/C-G — on a special mission to find Philae next month.

In November, the European Space Agency’s Philae probe became the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet when it touched down on comet 67P/C-G,

This was a huge achievement. But the Rosetta orbiter — which carried Philae to the comet and has been studying it since August — has actually provided much more valuable scientific data.

In November, after the Philae probe’s historic landing on a comet, it bounced and likely landed in a shadowy crater — quickly draining its battery due to a lack of sunlight.

As of yesterday, European Space Agency scientists still don’t know exactly where it is, according to the BBC.

The European Space Agency’s Rosetta orbiter — the spacecraft that carried the Philae lander — is still orbiting the comet 67P/G-C, even though Philae’s battery died about a month ago.

Now, scientists have used data collected by Rosetta for publicly available research for the first time. In a new paper published today in Science, an international group of led by Kathrin Altwegg has analyzed water molecules released by the comet.

This happened a bit more quickly than planned, because Philae bounced twice after it landed, ending up in a shadowy crater, preventing its solar panels from much sunlight.

However, in terms of both scientific data and historical milestones, this mission was a huge success. In an extremely short time, the lander collected all sorts of information that will help us better understand the composition of comets. Additionally, the Rosetta orbiter will continue to orbit the comet for more than a year, collecting still more data.

Wednesday morning, Philae became the first spacecraft ever to land on a comet.

However, we now know that it didn’t go exactly as planned. The craft’s harpoons failed to engage, so Philae ended up bouncing off the comet, then landing two hours later, a kilometer away from its intended landing site.

Yesterday, the European Space Agency’s Philae probe made history as the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet.

Today, Philae sent back the first photos from the comet’s surface — including the photo above, a composite of two photos taken by a series of small cameras mounted on Philae.

Update: Day two news and photos from the Philae mission

Today, humankind landed a spacecraft on a comet for the first time. Here’s why it’s such a big deal. And here’s some of the greatest images from this amazing achievement, which we’ll continue to update:

At around 10:30 am EST Wednesday morning, a small probe named Philae made history — by becoming the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet.

This live stream from the European Space Agency provides a look-in at the scientists operating the groundbreaking probe.

For more, check out our article on the mission or watch the video below: The unprecedented attempt to land on a comet, explained in 3 minutes.

Today the European Space Agency’s Rosetta probe landed a robot onto comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is currently hurtling through our solar system more than 300 million miles away from Earth. Vox science writer Joseph Stromberg explains Rosetta’s journey, and why we would want to land on a comet in the first place.

Update: The landing was a success — check out our article for more information.

About 10:30 am EST Wednesday morning, if everything goes to plan, a small probe named Philae will make history — by becoming the first spacecraft to ever land on a comet.

On Wednesday, for the first time ever, a human spacecraft made a controlled rendezvous with a comet. This is what it saw as it approached:

For generations of people raised on sci-fi movies, the video might not look like a huge deal. But it’s pretty amazing to realize that this choppy little clip is an actual image of a real comet — the most detailed look we’ve ever had.