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ESA says missing comet probe Philae found

Xinhua, September 6, 2016 Adjust font size:

The European Space Agency (ESA) on Monday announced that the lost space probe Philae was found in a dark crack on a comet.

"Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta's high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko," the agency said in a statement.

The images were taken on Sept. 2 by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly shows the main body of the lander, along with two of its three legs, it added.

Philae, the ESA's remarkable achievement of first-ever probe landing on a comet, landed on the comet in November 2014.

Its last contact from the surface of 67P was in July 2015.

"This wonderful news means that we now have the missing 'ground-truth' information needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context, now that we know where that ground actually is," said Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist.

Rosetta, carrying Philae, has chased Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over 10 years since being launched in March 2004, and has traveled for about seven billion km, passing the Earth, Mars, and two asteroids on its way.

Scientists hope to study the comet's make-up with the help of the 10 scientific instruments on board Philae and to watch its evolution as it approaches the sun. Endit