On November 12, 2014, the European Space Agency’s Philae lander became the first spacecraft to successfully soft land on a comet. Despite complications with the landing that left the probe unable to utilize its solar panels for power, significant scientific discoveries were still made. Today the team published seven studies in Science covering topics such as surface firmness, the composition of the comet ‘s interior, and the discovery of organic molecules.
This animation is a compilation of descent photographs taken by the ROsetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS) approaching the Agilkia landing site on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The final frame was taken 9m above the touchdown site.
Source: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/07/Descending_to_a_comet (ESA)
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