Interesting Photo of the Day: First Ever Photo Taken From a Comet

Yesterday was a big day in history. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission achieved something epic—for the first time ever, a probe successfully landed on a comet. It was a feat ten years in the making; Rosetta was launched on March 2, 2004 and traveled 6.4 billion kilometers to arrive at its destination. Upon touching down, the Philae lander, which has its own Twitter account, took this first-of-its-kind image from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko:

philae photo of comet

“Welcome to a Comet” (Via ESA. Click image to see full size.)

“Rosetta’s lander Philae is safely on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as these first two CIVA images confirm. One of the lander’s three feet can be seen in the foreground. The image is a two-image mosaic.” — European Space Agency

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