The European Space Agency has made history, as the Philae spacecraft has successfully landed on a comet. It’s the first time a probe has landed on a comet.
The ESA confirmed the landing on the probe’s Twitter page. Philae, which has been traveling to the comet for 10 years, while attached to the Rosetta mother ship, finally detached around 3:30 a.m. ET. It took seven hours for the lander to reach the surface.
Philae’s new home is officially 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is 300 million miles from Earth, reports Reuters. A box-shaped lander, Philae weighs 220 pounds. Its journey cost 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and was built by a European consortium led by the German Aerospace Research Institute.
CNN reports that the Rosetta mission’s scientists hope to learn more about what comets are made of and how these interact with solar wind. It’s actually an international group of scientists, as NASA scientists are also taking part.
Scientists also hope that samples from 67P’s surface could also help explain how planets are formed, especially since they believe comets might have brought water to our planet.
image via Twitter from ESA _Rosetta