Philae

A high-speed magnetic valve developed, though never used, for ESA to help steer the Philae lander on its encounter with the comet 67P has found a job on Earth delivering precision doses of flavor to soft drinks.

Scientists have discovered the second site at which ESA’s ill-fated Philae lander touched down on comet 67P, and in so doing revealed that the ancient ice hidden under the surface of the comet is softer than the froth on a cappuccino.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has completed a massive publicly-available archive of almost 100,000 images and a mass of data collected over the course of the historic Rosetta mission.

An almost two-year-long cosmic search party has come to an end, with scientists at the European Space Agency spying their Philae comet lander wedged into the dark crack on the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

​ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has observed a dramatic increase in activity from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, seemingly brought on by a landslide. The new data will help scientists to further characterize the activity that continues to shape 67P to this day.

ESA has released a video detailing the intricate orbit traveled by Rosetta over the past two years, as the probe explored the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

It has been a long and drawn out farewell, but today the European Space Agency will wave a final goodbye to its Philae lander, the first spacecraft to ever touch down on the surface of a comet.

​​ESA has announced the date upon which mission operators will crash the Rosetta spacecraft into the surface of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

According to Rosetta's science team, hostile surface conditions prevailing on 67P have rendered any hopes of re-establishing communications with the Philae lander negligible.

The Philae comet lander as it faces terminal shutdown in about three weeks, but mission control is making a last-ditch effort to revive it.​

ESA’s Philae comet lander has once again gone silent. According to the space agency, the first spacecraft to make a soft landing on a comet lost radio contact with the Rosetta orbiter mothership on July 9.

Reaching 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko with Rosetta was an incredible feat of science and engineering which has revolutionized how we understand comets. Join us as we take a look at what can be expected as Rosetta travels ever closer to the Sun.