Almost two years after it touched down on the surface of comet 67P, the Philae lander has been found.

In images taken just three days ago by a camera on board the Rosetta space probe, the lander can be seen nestled in a dark crack on the comet’s surface, with two of its three legs sticking out.

“For many people it is a huge emotional closure, but for the scientists it is incredibly important because it now tells us where the measurements were taken that we made with Philae back in 2014 – that context is everything,” said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser at the European Space Agency (ESA).

Huge Image Here

Full Report: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/05/lost-philae-lander-found-as-rosetta-mission-draws-to-a-close-comet-67p

Parts labelled:

Phenomenal.

Ah, so now I see what went wrong in the planning stage.

We all knew that the first thing that went wrong was that nobody prepared that Philae would touch down too softly that it’s rock anchors wouldn’t fire.

But what I now realise is that nobody realised just how uneven the surface of the comet is. It’s because Philae is dwarfed by an overhanging crag that it came to be permanently in the shade, which is why its batteries initially rapidly went flat, and then failed permanently in the cold because of lack of sunlight.

Very nice to see the photo of Philae on the surface. For the two reasons they mentioned – for closure, and so the measurements that were taken by Philae can now be linked to a specific spot on the surface. The orbital period of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is just 6.45 years, so it won’t be travelling too far away for a while.

PS, are all the photos of 67P in black and white? Or are there coloured photos as well?

mollwollfumble said:

PS, are all the photos of 67P in black and white? Or are there coloured photos as well?

http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/12/12/comet-67pc-g-in-living-colour/

I find these images rather sad.

We shouldn’t be sending anything with “legs” and “eyes” that sends data “home” into space, never to return :/

Speedy said:

I find these images rather sad.

We shouldn’t be sending anything with “legs” and “eyes” that sends data “home” into space, never to return :/

We can mount a rescue mission

but it will be expensive, kickstarter perhaps.

CrazyNeutrino said:

Speedy said:

I find these images rather sad.

We shouldn’t be sending anything with “legs” and “eyes” that sends data “home” into space, never to return :/

We can mount a rescue mission

but it will be expensive, kickstarter perhaps.

Good thinkin’, CN :)

Speedy said:

I find these images rather sad.

We shouldn’t be sending anything with “legs” and “eyes” that sends data “home” into space, never to return :/

It does look rather like it’s waving goodbye.