In early 2014, it was time to wake up Rosetta. The European Space Agency space probe had been slumbering since some time after the launch back in 2004 and had now been closing in on its main target, the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
The spacecraft also had a companion, Philae and later that year these two fellows went into orbit around the comet and started to investigate it, for scientific reasons and to find a proper landing spot for the lander module, on the "duck shaped" celestial body, and to become the first spacecraft ever to land on a comet.
November 12 it was finally time for Philae to land, but unfortunately it failed to do it properly (it bounced a couple of times, due to failing anchoring harpoons), but managed to stop. A few days later it got to its final rest, after first sending lots of interesting data back to Earth.
Even Rosetta got to land (crash) on the comet's surface later, but before that it had also gather and transmitted lots of useful and interesting data and imagery (including photos of Philea on its final parking spot) back to the ESA headquarters, both from orbit and during its descent.
In the video below are some of the images that was send back to Earth, all taken from the ESA’s archives: "All high-resolution images and the underpinning data from Rosetta’s pioneering mission at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are now available in ESA’s archives, with the last release including the iconic images of finding lander Philae, and Rosetta’s final descent to the comet’s surface..."
Click or tap on the video to get full screen.
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