Comet-chasing Rosetta mission keeps surprising scientists

In 2004, Rosetta the spacecraft and Philae the robot set out on a mission to catch a distant comet called 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

What they are now doing over a decade later is re-writing, in surprising new ways, our understanding of how the solar system formed.

Last November, after spending years chasing the comet, Rosetta finally dropped Philae onto its surface to study it more closely.

It was the first time a man-made object landed on a comet. Comets are of huge interest to scientists because, to human knowledge, they are the most ancient bodies of the solar system – the building blocks from which our sun and planets were formed some 5 billion years ago.

The Rosetta mission has been full of surprises – from the odd shape of comet 67P Philae’s unintended bounce towards a location where it could not easily recharge its solar-powered batteries.

The tired little lander went to sleep in November and scientists have since been struggling to determine its exact location.

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