Rosetta's lander Philae is on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Thursday, November 13, and sending back images. One of the lander's three feet can be seen in the foreground. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet, Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun. The information collected by Philae at one location on the surface will complement that collected by the Rosetta orbiter for the entire comet.
(CNN) -- For the first time, on Wednesday, humans landed a spacecraft on the surface of a comet orbiting the sun.
Holy crap! Even William Shatner was impressed.
Much of the Internet, of course, just shrugged. And made jokes.
Trending on Twitter since the morning of November 12 was the hashtag #WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant, believed to have been created by @theOrangeCone. People on Twitter completed the phrase with quips about the seemingly simple tasks we still can't seem to accomplish.
Here are some of our favorites:
Rosetta's lander Philae captured this image during its descent to the comet from a distance of 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the surface on Wednesday, November 12.
Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. The lander touched down on the comet seven hours after separating from the orbiter.
Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation.
This mosaic is made of four individual images taken 31.8 kilometers (about 20 miles) from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 4.
Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15. The box on the right shows where the lander will touch down.
The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6. From a distance of 130 kilometers (nearly 81 miles), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section.
This image, captured August 7, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus.
The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6.
This image of the comet was taken on August 1.
Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana.
Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA.
This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch.
Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff.
After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet.
Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth.
Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter.
Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system.
This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible.
On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins.
Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background.
After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014.
In November, Rosetta will become the first spacecraft to deploy a robot for a soft landing on a comet. It also will be the first probe to escort a comet into our inner solar system. This drawing shows how Rosetta will drop its robot lander, Philae, onto the comet.
The robot lander will fire harpoons to anchor itself to the comet. Scientists expect the lander to send back data to Earth for at least a week and possibly for many months as the comet heads toward the sun.
#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant order a McDonald's breakfast after 10:30 AM.
— Kaiman Cheung (@Kaiman_Cheung) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant deport Justin Bieber back to Canada
— Hector Gaytan (@HectorGCreative) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant go 30 seconds without looking at our smartphones
— Dallas Burd (@FolfJay) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant stop saying Hump Day on Wednesdays.
— racing dead wonka (@NASCAR_Wonka) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant type more than 140 characters
— Jamie Agee (@ByJamieAgee) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant convince @KimKardashian to keep her pants on.
— Ed Davis (@FreddyMavis) November 13, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant touch this... pic.twitter.com/ErgCnprDPN
— Steph Pirro-Tenney (@Pirroette) November 13, 2014#wecanlandonacometbutwecant convince the self-checkout machine that there is nothing unexpected in the bagging area.
— Holiday Hypermarket (@holidayhype) November 13, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant find a missing plane on our own planet 😳
— MrsMKD1973 (@MrsMKD1973) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant get Canada to realize their bacon is really ham.
— Hugo's Head. (@hugoshead) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant UnCat the internet pic.twitter.com/DJt8z7nKIL
— Writing Service (@Essayshark1) November 13, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant use apostrophes in hashtags
— Musky Lozenge (@LostCatDog) November 12, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant agree to increase @NASA funding.
— Tom Broiles (@tomathy01) November 12, 2014#wecanlandonacometbutwecant flush the toilet when someone's in the shower
— ♡ Heroine Hippie ♡ (@NeensNicole_) November 13, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant wait until December before we go crazy for Christmas.
— Jayne (@BillandBettys) November 13, 2014#wecanlandonacometbutwecant get a fire alarm to tell the difference between burnt toast and a blazing inferno
— Student Problems (@ProblemsAtUni) November 13, 2014#WeCanLandOnACometButWeCant
Shoot a teddy bear who steals our land speeder. pic.twitter.com/tgtg5vvsd0
— Darth Vader No1â„¢ (@DarthVader_No1) November 13, 2014.
