The European Space Agency has successfuly landed the Philae probe on a comet.
View of comet 67p from Philae on descent Image:ESA/Rosetta/Philae/Rolis/DLR |
The Lander, carried into position 14 miles (22km) above the comet known as 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko by its mothership Rosetta, began its descent towards the comet at around 09.00GMT on Wednesday 12th November. The ambitious project was resulted in the first-ever landing of a human-made object on the surface of a comet.
With a time delay of about 28 minutes, scientists in the ESA's mission control centre in Germany had an anxious wait as signals were transmitted from the 46lb (21kg refrigerator-sized Philae probe over the 316 million mile (508m km) distance back to Earth.
The journey from Rosetta to touchdown took some seven hours for the probe to reach the surface of the 2.5 mile (4km) wide comet. Once on the surface, the probe used harpoons and ice screws to try and secure its three legs to the comet as the mass of ice heads towards a 'close' orbit of the sun at an eye-watering 40,000 mph (64,300km/h).
Although initial telemetry from Philae, via Rosetta, showed the probe had made a safe landing, subsequent data indicated the probe had, in fact, bounced twice before finally coming to rest.
However, Philae immediately set to work collecting samples of the comet's rock and molecular structure which could give scientists important insight into the birth of our universe, as well as transmitting pictures of the comet's surface.
ESA Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain described the moment of landing as "a big step for human civilisation. The biggest problem of success is that it looks easy...and when you know the sum of expertise, dedication and teamworking amongst 20 Eureopan states and other partners you realise it does not come from the sky. Success comes from hardwork and expertise."