The first photo image taken from the surface of a comet by the tiny European Space Agency lander Philae shows one foot of the probe perched on bleak, rocky terrain.
“Now that I’m safely on the ground, here is what my new home #67P looks like from where I am,” Philae tweeted back to Earth, 300 million miles away, on Thursday.
67P is the shorthand name for 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the duck-shaped comet that is speeding through the universe at more than 80,000 mph.
Jean-Pierre Bibring, lead scientist for Philae, said the photo image was particularly exciting because it shows “both what man built, the lander, and what nature built, six billion years ago, preserved as it was at that time.”
Philae landed on the comet Wednesday after a harrowing 7-hour descent at the end of a decade-long flight through space. ESA scientists say Rosetta initially hit the surface of the comet about 100 meters from the planned landing site, then bounced three times before settling down.
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