Rosetta Mission’s Probe Makes Historic Comet Landing

A robotic probe has landed on a comet, in an unprecedented moment for space exploration that could provide a trove of insights into what comets are made of and how they behave.

Photo Credit: ESA/NASA - SOHO/LASCO

Photo Credit: ESA/NASA – SOHO/LASCO

Rocket scientists at the European Space Agency’s mission control here erupted in cheers, as they received the first signal that the probe that was released from the Rosetta spacecraft had touched down more than 300 million miles away from earth on the forbidding landscape of a small comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

There were even more cheers, hugs and handshakes when other signals suggested it had done so safely.

Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA

The landing, first envisaged more than 20 years ago, marks the crowning moment of Rosetta’s decadelong cruise through the solar system to get up close and personal with a comet. During its 4 billion mile journey on a track to meet the comet, Rosetta bounced around the inner solar system like a cosmic billiard ball, circling the sun almost four times.

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