Rosetta

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.​

From commercial space to space lettuce, 2015 was a bumper year for exploring the Solar System and beyond. To get the low down on the high ground, Gizmag looks back on the highlights of space exploration and technology over the past twelve months.

The team of scientists responsible for operating the OSIRIS instrument aboard ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has launched a dedicated website in order to grant the public unprecedented access to images snapped of the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P).

ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has discovered molecular oxygen (O₂) jetting out of the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in such abundance that it may date back to the formation of the comet.

ESA's Rosetta probe has shown that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's southern hemisphere was hidden in a darkness from a winter that lasts over five years and hides ice in larger amounts than the rest of the comet.

The unmanned Rosetta probe has revealed that comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko has a daily water cycle that, according to ESA, keeps it "alive."

On Thursday at 02:03 GMT, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta orbiter reached their closest point (known as perihelion) to the Sun, coming within 186 million km (115 million mi) of our parent star.

Rosetta has detected a powerful jet of activity emitted from the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (67P). The force of the outburst, which is believed to be travelling at 10 m per sec (32 ft per sec), was strong enough to temporarily repel the solar wind, creating a diamagnetic cavity.

New ESA images allow the public to take an in-depth tour of the Imhotep region of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P). Located close to the comet's equator, Imhotep is thought to be one of the most geologically diverse regions of 67P.

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.

Deep space exploration represents some of humanity's most astonishing achievements - so we've decided to feature five active space missions that absolutely blow our minds. Meet the Mars Orbiter, New Horizons, Rosetta and the intrepid Voyager spacecraft in our second State of the Game video.