comet landing

Philae /ˈfaɪliː/ is a robotic European Space Agency lander that accompanied the Rosetta spacecraft until its designed landing on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, over ten years after departing Earth. On 12 November 2014, the lander achieved the first controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus. Its instruments are expected to obtain the first images from a comet’s surface and make the first in situ analysis to determine its composition.