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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Philae Lander Awakens from Hibernation!

The Philae lander has awoken on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, and is communicating via the Rosetta orbiter!

Philae spent ten years aboard Rosetta, travelling the 405 million kilometres (just over 251 million miles) between Earth and the spacecraft's cometary destination. Shortly after landing on the comet in mid-November of 2014, the lander went into hibernation.  The Rosetta orbiter will now act as a relay between Philae and the European Space Agency on Earth.

Photos of the comet, taken Rosetta's onboard OSIRIS camera, have already provided detailed images of the cometary surface as it travels through space at close to 55,000 kilometres per hour (over 34,000 mph).

Read more about Rosetta's amazing journey, research, and future mission plans here!

Rosetta's comet rendezvous
Image credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA. Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 3 August from a distance of 285 km.