The Rosetta mission made history last year, by being the first manmade spacecraft to ever orbit or land on a comet. Things didn't go exactly as planned, though. The lander Philae bounced around and got lost somewhere on the comet's surface. Wherever it is, it's not getting enough sunlight on its solar panels to keep it fully charged, so ESA has shut it down until the springtime, when the comet will be closer to the Sun. Meanwhile, the orbiter has been busy collecting data. The journal Science just published a boatload of new findings from the duck-shaped Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Here are some of our favorites.
![Rosetta Mission Lands On Rubber Ducky Comet [Update]](../../Utils/ImageResizer-ashx_n_/News/landing_w_525_c_0_s_1.jpg)
NASA planetary director James Green comments on the Rosetta mission's success: "How Audacious! To dare to land on a comet! … The solar system is mankind’s. This mission is the first step to take it. It’s our. Let’s learn about the environment we’re in. It’s these steps that will lead us beyond this planet and on to Mars, and out into the solar system. … It’s our destiny to move off this planet, and this is the kind of step that we must do. "
On November 12, the Rosetta mission will make history by becoming the first spacecraft to touch down on a comet. Until today, the European Space Agency has been referring to the craft's epic landing area as “Site J”. But in mid-October the ESA announced a competition to give the site a better name, and the results are in: Site J’s new moniker will be Agilkia.
