ESA made history today.
The European Space Agency announced that their probe named Philae has landed on the surface of a comet. This marks the first time in history that a probe landed on a surface of a comet. Shortly after landing was confirmed, the probe tweeted: “Touchdown! My new address: 67P!” Later, it tweeted again: “I’m on the surface but my harpoons did not fire.”
At first there was problems with the landing. The comet’s gravity is so weak that engineers have come up with ingenious solutions to keep Philae in place. At touchdown two harpoons were due to fire out from the legs and screws on each of the three feet were designed to help attach it to the comet.
Philae is expected to stay on the comet until Thursday. It is expected to drill into the comet and analyze the material.
Scientists are hoping the probe will help us learn a lot more about the composition of comets and how they react when they get close to the sun.