Rosetta.

"Kudos to you, European Space Agency, and get off your butts and do more space stuff, NASA!"

Dodger Leigh, The Daily Byte

I confess that I was completely unaware of the impending touchdown of the Philae lander on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko this morning until I read about it in Chris Hadfield's Twitter™ account - feel free to take away my geek card.

The lander was launched from the European Space Agency's cometary probe Rosetta, and in spite of some problems with the thrusters intended to hold the lander on the surface while an anchoring harpoon was embedded in the surface, Philae successfully touched down on the comet - albeit with a couple of bounces. This marks the first landing ever on the surface of a comet, and is the culmination of a ten year, 6.4 billion* kilometre journey that began with Rosetta's launch on March 2nd, 2004.

Rosetta and its little brother* will spend the next 17 months investigating Churyumov–Gerasimenko, collecting detailed information on how the comet changes as it makes its way toward the Sun.  In addition, scientists at the ESA hope to learn more about the origins of the planets from this chunk of rock that predates the birth of the solar system.

To see some amazing shots of the comet's surface, pay a visit to Rosetta's Flickr™ gallery.  Included in the gallery is a very cool selfie by the probe from October, showing one of its 14 metre wings, which collect solar energy to power the craft, and a shot of the comet in the background.

© European Space Agency

Selfies with comets, selfies on Mars - is it just me, or are the robots having all the fun when it comes to space exploration? 

- Sid

* Yes, BILLION.

** Or sister, hard to tell from the photos.