Photos: How ESA's Philae lander reached comet 67P
The European Space Agency has achieved a historic first — landing a washing machine-sized spacecraft on a comet speeding through our solar system at 41,000 mph (66,000 kph).
)
The image shows comet 67P/CG acquired by the ROLIS instrument on the Philae lander during descent on Nov 12 from a distance of approximately 3 km from the surface. The landing site is imaged with a resolution of about 3m per pixel. Associated Press
Artist's impression showing Philae separating from Rosetta and descending to the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The 100-kg (220-pound) lander - virtually weightless on the comet's surface - touched down on schedule at about 1600 GMT after a seven-hour descent from its orbiting mothership Rosetta, now located a half-billion kilometres (300 million miles) from Earth. Source: ESA website
Scientists at the European Space Agency getting the receipt of signal from comet surface just after Philae landed. Philae has ten instruments on board — including devices to measure light, electrical magnetism and heat — and flying up above the comet the Rosetta spacecraft has another 11 instruments. ESA Website
Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation. The Philae lander will provide plenty of images of a world no human has ever seen close up and will drill below the surface to extract a sample of the comet that will be analyzed onboard. ESA Website
Smiles in the Main Control Room at ESA's Operations Centre, ESOC, as separation of the Philae lander from ESA Rosetta orbiter is confirmed. ESA Website
Rosetta’s lander Philae took this parting shot of its mothership shortly after separation. The image was taken with the lander’s CIVA-P imaging system and captures one of Rosetta's 14 metre-long solar arrays. It was stored onboard the lander until the radio link was established with Rosetta around two hours after separation, and then relayed to Earth. The comet is on a 6 ½-year elliptical orbit around the sun. At the moment it is getting closer to our star. This makes for great science, since Philae and Rosetta will be able to observe the comet becoming more active. ESA Website
Smiles in the Main Control Room at ESA's Operations Centre, ESOC, as separation of the Philae lander from ESA Rosetta orbiter is confirmed. ESA Website