Space probe finds lost Philae lander on comet

Philae, the little space robot that has captured hearts around the world, was thought to be forever lost.

But delighted scientists announced Sunday that the European Space Agency’s comet lander has come back from the cosmic dead.

New images downloaded from the Rosetta probe in orbit around the awkwardly named Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show the long-lost Philae wedged in a crack between some rocks. Rosetta captured the images in the nick of time, as its mission is ending in less than a month.

“THE SEARCH IS OVER! I’ve found @Philae2014!!” announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter.

The discovery is the latest twist in an amazing space odyssey.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015.

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.

This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet.

Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph.

The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later.

Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation.

Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. 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.

This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014.

Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down.

The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section.

This image, captured August 7, 2014, 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, 2014.

This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target.

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.

Rosetta: The comet chaser

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In November 2014, Philae completed a spectacular landing on the frozen surface of the comet, despite a harpoon system that did not function after its 10-year journey through space.

The lander hopped across the comet’s surface, and as people across the globe watched its progress, engineers and scientists announced that Philae was communicating with its ground stations, some 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) away on Earth.

Google dedicated its search page to the lander, and instead of the second letter O in its logo, depicted Philae extending its three legs.

Scientists carried out over 60 hours of research with Philae’s instruments, acquiring images, sensing molecules and attempting to hammer the unexpectedly hard surface of the comet.

Scientists describe the pictures as definitive: There's no doubt the object is Philae.

Among the invaluable scientific data gathered was the dramatic discovery of 16 “carbon and nitrogen-rich” organic compounds, supporting the theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets.

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But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to get the energy it needed from the sun to power its solar panels, its battery went flat and it fell into hibernation mode.

As the comet came closer to the Sun in June and July 2015, the lander briefly revived and communicated once again.

When once again it fell silent, it was assumed Philae had stopped functioning due to the extremely cold environment. The three-legged probe even sent a heartbreaking farewell tweet in July.

“Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands,” Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, announced in February this year. “It would be very surprising if we received a signal now.”

Philae seemed to be doomed to life lost and alone traveling through the solar system.

But when analysis was completed of the latest pictures from Rosetta’s Osiris camera, which were downlinked to Earth on Sunday night, there came a delightful surprise.

Philae is wedged in a dark crack on the surface of the frozen comet.

The photos show Philae wedged in a shadowy crack, with its boxy, one-meter-wide body and two of its three legs clearly visible.

There has been an outpouring of delight at the remarkable news.

“With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail,” said Cecilia Tubiana of the Osiris camera team.

Patrick Martin, ESA’s Rosetta Mission Manager, said: “This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour.”

Although there is no hope of reviving the lander, knowing exactly where it is resting will help scientists make better sense of the data it returned during its three days of operation back in 2014.

Matt Taylor, ESA’s Rosetta project scientist added: “This wonderful news means that we now have the missing ‘ground-truth’ information needed to put Philae’s three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is.”

The discovery comes just a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on the comet Sept 30 to bring its 12-year mission to an end.

“Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta’s landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta’s touchdown site,” said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the Osiris camera.