"Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic Landing on a Comet"

[Humanist]

Nasa.gov

Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic Landing on a Comet

After more than a decade traveling through space, a robotic lander built by the European Space Agency has made the first-ever soft landing of a spacecraft on a comet. Mission controllers at ESA's mission operations center received a signal confirming that the Philae lander had touched down on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Wednesday, Nov. 12, just after 8 a.m. PST/11 a.m. EST. The lander is expected to send images from its landing site, Agilkia, the first ever taken from a comet's surface.

[Alpine Hominin]

I'm excited to see the photos.

[MikeWhalen]

and hear the song!

M

[Humanist]

Comet Lander's Big Bounce Caught On Camera

Geoff Brumfiel

In a perfect world, the lander would have fired harpoons at touchdown, securing it to the right landing site. Solar power would have allowed the lander's tools to operate for months as the comet approached the sun. MUPUS would have cracked the surface, and scientists would have learned loads more.

That didn't happen, but researchers still see the landing mission as a spectacular success.

[DMXX]

The one finding I am intensely curious regarding is the presence or absence of organic compounds (i.e. complex chained hydrocarbons) on this comet. This could lend support to the panspermia hypothesis, which remains plausible as a concept. If they find any evidence of this...

[Edit]: Aha! We have it!

[Tolan]

It's bizarre but this comet does not interest me much!
It is true that I am more interested by the study of the universe by looking for extra-Earthly life ..
Unless we discover one day something interesting about it!

[Humanist]

BBC

Philae comet lander wakes up, says European Space Agency

It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the Sun and Philae has enough power to work again...

[Baest]

Its tweeting again lol.
Hopefully some amazing data as she gets nearer the sun. Imagine the ablation video shot from the cometary surface!