A European Space Agency probe has become the first to land on a comet.
The ESA’s Philae probe took seven hours to descend to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko with the signal arriving back at earth at 4.03pm yesterday (Greenwich Mean Time).
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: A picture taken from the Philae probe as it descends to the comet. PICTURE: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR
Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the ESA, said the organisation and its Rosetta mission partners had “achieved something extraordinary”.
“Our ambitious Rosetta mission has secured another place in the history books: not only is it the first to rendezvous with and orbit a comet, but it is now also the first to deliver a probe to a comet’s surface.”
The Rosetta space craft was launched 10 years ago – on 2nd March, 2004 – and travelled some 6.4 billion kilometres before reaching the comet on 6th August this year.
The landing site, named Agilkia, was chosen after six weeks of data collection. The lander will conduct its primary data collection mission over the next two-and-a-half days but it is hoped, using a second rechargeable battery, that data collection could continue until March next year.
The space craft Rosetta will now manoeuvre back to a 20 kilometre orbit and continue its monitoring of the comet.
