Story highlights
Images show area on comet where scientists believe Philae probe landed
"Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our solar system," ESA scientist says
Experts are excited about what kind of information Philae will deliver
Philae has nine experiments including drill to sample the surface, onboard oven
CNN
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Scientists who pulled off a huge achievement in space exploration showed numerous black-and-white images Thursday of where they think the Philae probe landed on a comet 310 million miles from Earth.
Many at the European Space Agency have gone without sleep in the last few days, nervously anticipating whether Philae’s difficult journey would actually end in success. A few who spoke to reporters in Darmstadt, Germany, choked up and said how much the mission – dubbed Rosetta – means to them and to space exploration.
“Rosetta is trying to answer the very big questions about the history of our solar system,” said Matt Taylor, ESA Rosetta project scientist. “What were the conditions like at its infancy and how did it evolve? What role did comets play in this evolution? How do comets work?”
There were flaws with the landing – anchoring harpoons didn’t deploy when Philae made impact, lander manager Stephan Ulamec said, and screws meant to burrow into the surface didn’t work. But Philae bounced at least twice, they said, and stuck the landing. And that was all that counts.
A jubilant Jean-Pierre Bibring, who has reportedly spent more than two decades working on the Rosetta mission, showed photos that scientists were just beginning to receive.
ESA scientists and executives high-fived and hugged one another when the landing was confirmed on Wednesday. Spacecraft have crashed into comets before, but this was the first controlled landing in history.
“Our ambitious Rosetta mission has secured a 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 lander to a comet’s surface,” Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s director general, said in a statement.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
The Rosetta probe sent an unexpected final image back to Earth shortly before it made a controlled impact onto the surface of Comet 67P last September.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
Philae has been found! —
The Rosetta spacecraft's high-resolution camera took this image of the Philae lander on September 2, 2016. The lander is wedged into a dark crack on a comet, named 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, hurtling through space. The discovery comes less than a month before the Rosetta mission's end.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
Philae is wedged in a dark corner of Rosetta —
"We are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team. She was the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from the Rosetta probe, according to the European Space Agency.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
Philae found using images from Rosetta —
The image is detailed enough that viewers can pick out features of Philae's 3-foot-wide (1 meter) body. Even two of its three legs can be seen.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team
One of the primary objectives of the Rosetta mission was to drop the Philae lander onto the comet. The probe was successfully deployed in November 2014, becoming the first probe to land on a comet. But Philae failed to grab onto the comet and bounced around. It fell silent a few days later. Then on June 13, 2015,
Philae came out of hibernation and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. This photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter, after the lander started its descent to the comet.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
The Rosetta spacecraft captured this
image of a jet of white debris spraying from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko on July 29, 2015. Mission scientists said this was the brightest jet seen to date in the mission. The debris is
mostly of ice coated with dark organic material.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
Rosetta/Navcam/ESA
This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on July 8, 2015 as the spacecraft and comet headed toward their closest approach to the sun. Rosetta was about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from the comet when it took this image.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA
Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after it came out of hibernation on June 13, 2015. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
Courtesy ESA
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/NavCam
This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015, while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/NavCam
Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
Courtesy ESA/Rosetta/NavCam -- CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
The Rosetta Mission is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta/NavCam -- CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta
Rosetta snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta
A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta
Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014.
Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser
ESA/Rosetta
The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power.
