(CNN) Philae, the little space robot that has captured hearts around the world, was thought to be forever lost.

But delighted scientists announced Sunday that the European Space Agency's comet lander has come back from the cosmic dead.

New images downloaded from the Rosetta probe in orbit around the awkwardly named Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show the long-lost Philae wedged in a crack between some rocks. Rosetta captured the images in the nick of time, as its mission is ending in less than a month.

"THE SEARCH IS OVER! I've found @Philae2014!!" announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter.

The discovery is the latest twist in an amazing space odyssey.

Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta probe sent an unexpected final image back to Earth shortly before it made a controlled impact onto the surface of Comet 67P last September. Hide Caption 1 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae has been found! – The Rosetta spacecraft's high-resolution camera took this image of the Philae lander on September 2, 2016. The lander is wedged into a dark crack on a comet, named 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko, hurtling through space. The discovery comes less than a month before the Rosetta mission's end. Hide Caption 2 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae is wedged in a dark corner of Rosetta – "We are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," says Cecilia Tubiana of the OSIRIS camera team. She was the first person to see the images when they were downlinked from the Rosetta probe, according to the European Space Agency. Hide Caption 3 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae found using images from Rosetta – The image is detailed enough that viewers can pick out features of Philae's 3-foot-wide (1 meter) body. Even two of its three legs can be seen. Hide Caption 4 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser One of the primary objectives of the Rosetta mission was to drop the Philae lander onto the comet. The probe was successfully deployed in November 2014, becoming the first probe to land on a comet. But Philae failed to grab onto the comet and bounced around. It fell silent a few days later. Then on June 13, 2015, Philae came out of hibernation and "spoke" to mission managers at the European Space Agency for 85 seconds. This photo above was taken by the lander's mothership, the Rosetta orbiter, after the lander started its descent to the comet. Hide Caption 5 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta spacecraft captured this image of a jet of white debris spraying from Comet 67P/Churyumov--Gerasimenko on July 29, 2015. Mission scientists said this was the brightest jet seen to date in the mission. The debris is mostly of ice coated with dark organic material. Hide Caption 6 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on July 8, 2015 as the spacecraft and comet headed toward their closest approach to the sun. Rosetta was about 125 miles (201 kilometers) from the comet when it took this image. Hide Caption 7 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae wakes up! Mission managers posted this cartoon of the lander yawning after it came out of hibernation on June 13, 2015. They also sent a series of tweets between the lander and its mothership, Rosetta. Hide Caption 8 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a Jupiter-family comet. Its 6.5 year journey around the Sun takes it from just beyond the orbit of Jupiter at its most distant, to between the orbits of Earth and Mars at its closest. The comet hails from the Kuiper Belt, but gravitational perturbations knocked it towards the Sun where interactions with Jupiter's gravity set it on its present-day orbit. Hide Caption 9 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by Rosetta on June 5, 2015, while the spacecraft was about 129 miles (208 kilometers) from the comet's center. Hide Caption 10 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's navigation camera took this image of the comet on June 1, 2015. Hide Caption 11 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta Mission is tracking Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its orbit around the sun. This image was taken on May 3, 2015 at a distance of about 84 miles (135 km) from the comet's center. Hide Caption 12 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken on April 15, 2015. Hide Caption 13 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta snapped this wide-angle view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in September 2014. Rosetta was about 107 million miles (172 million kilometers) from Earth and about 92 million miles (148 million kilometers) from the sun when the photo was released. Hide Caption 14 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser A camera on Rosetta took this picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 22, 2014, from a distance of about 19 miles (31 kilometers). The nucleus is deliberately overexposed to reveal jets of material spewing from the comet. The 2.5-mile-wide (4-kilometer) comet has shown a big increase in the amount of water its releasing, according to NASA. The space agency says about 40 ounces (1.2 liters) of water was being sprayed into space every second at the end of August 2014. Hide Caption 15 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this picture of a section of the comet's two lobes from a distance of about 5 miles (8 kilometers) on October 14, 2014. Hide Caption 16 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander is shown sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after becoming the first space probe to land on a comet on November 12, 2014. The probe's harpoons failed to fire, and Philae bounced a few times. The lander was able to send back images and data for 57 hours before losing power. Hide Caption 17 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's lander, Philae, wasn't able to get a good grip on the comet after it touched down. This mosaic shows Philae's movements as it bounced across the comet. Hide Caption 18 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Philae snapped these images after landing, and mission scientists used them to create a panoramic view of the landing site. A graphic shows where the probe would be sitting in the photograph. Hide Caption 19 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The image of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was taken by a camera on the Philae lander during its descent to the comet on November 12, 2014. The lander was about 1.9 miles (3 kilometers) from the surface at the time. Philae touched down on the comet about seven hours later. Hide Caption 20 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's OSIRIS camera captured this parting shot of the Philae lander after separation. Hide Caption 21 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mother ship shortly after separation on November 12, 2014, as Philae headed for a landing on Comet 67P. While Philae is the first probe to land on a comet , Rosetta is the first to rendezvous with a comet and follow it around the sun. Hide Caption 22 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This mosaic is made of four individual images taken about 20 miles (31.8 kilometers ) from the center of the comet on November 4, 2014. Hide Caption 23 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this image of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on September 15, 2014. The box on the right shows where the lander was expected to touch down. Hide Caption 24 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The spacecraft sent this image as it approached the comet on August 6, 2014. From a distance of nearly 81 miles (130 kilometers), it reveals detail of the smooth region on the comet's "body" section. Hide Caption 25 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image, captured August 7, 2014, shows the diversity of surface structures on the comet's nucleus. Hide Caption 26 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser The comet's "head" can be seen in the left of the frame as it casts a shadow over the "body" in this image released August 6, 2014. Hide Caption 27 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image of the comet was taken on August 1, 2014, as Rosetta closed in its target. Hide Caption 28 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta's mission started on March 2, 2004, when it was launched on a European Ariane 5 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. Hide Caption 29 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the black basalt that provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs. Scientists think the mission will give them new clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. The mission is spearheaded by the European Space Agency with key support from NASA. Hide Caption 30 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This photo shows Rosetta being tested before it was wrapped in insulating blankets and loaded on a rocket for launch. Hide Caption 31 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta has massive solar wings to power the spacecraft. They were unfurled and checked out at the European Space Agency's test facilities before being packed up for liftoff. Hide Caption 32 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser After its closest approach to Earth in November 2007, Rosetta captured this image of the planet. Hide Caption 33 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta snapped this image of Earth in November 2009. The spacecraft was 393,328 miles from Earth. Hide Caption 34 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta passed asteroid Steins in September 2008, giving scientists amazing close-ups of the asteroid's huge crater. The asteroid is about 3 miles in diameter. Hide Caption 35 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Rosetta took this image of Mars as it looped through the solar system. Hide Caption 36 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser This image was taken by an instrument on Rosetta's Philae lander just minutes before the spacecraft made its closest approach to Mars. Part of Rosetta and its solar arrays are visible. Hide Caption 37 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser On July 10, 2010, Rosetta flew about 1,864 miles from asteroid Lutetia, which is 10 times larger than asteroid Steins. Hide Caption 38 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser Look closely at the top of this picture. See that dot? That's Saturn. Rosetta snapped the picture of asteroid Lutetia and captured Saturn in the background. Hide Caption 39 of 40 Photos: Rosetta: The comet chaser After taking pictures of Earth, Mars and asteroids, Rosetta was put into hibernation in May 2011 after it reached the outer part of the solar system. Mission managers woke it January 20, 2014. Hide Caption 40 of 40

In November 2014, Philae completed a spectacular landing on the frozen surface of the comet, despite a harpoon system that did not function after its 10-year journey through space.

The lander hopped across the comet's surface, and as people across the globe watched its progress, engineers and scientists announced that Philae was communicating with its ground stations, some 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) away on Earth.

Google dedicated its search page to the lander, and instead of the second letter O in its logo, depicted Philae extending its three legs.

Scientists carried out over 60 hours of research with Philae's instruments, acquiring images, sensing molecules and attempting to hammer the unexpectedly hard surface of the comet.

Scientists describe the pictures as definitive: There's no doubt the object is Philae.

Among the invaluable scientific data gathered was the dramatic discovery of 16 "carbon and nitrogen-rich" organic compounds, supporting the theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets.

But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to get the energy it needed from the sun to power its solar panels, its battery went flat and it fell into hibernation mode.

As the comet came closer to the Sun in June and July 2015 , the lander briefly revived and communicated once again.

When once again it fell silent, it was assumed Philae had stopped functioning due to the extremely cold environment. The three-legged probe even sent a heartbreaking farewell tweet in July.

It's time for me to say goodbye. Tomorrow, the unit on @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever... — Philae Lander (@Philae2014) July 26, 2016

"Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, announced in February this year. "It would be very surprising if we received a signal now."

Philae seemed to be doomed to life lost and alone traveling through the solar system.

But when analysis was completed of the latest pictures from Rosetta's Osiris camera, which were downlinked to Earth on Sunday night, there came a delightful surprise.

Philae is wedged in a dark crack on the surface of the frozen comet.

The photos show Philae wedged in a shadowy crack, with its boxy, one-meter-wide body and two of its three legs clearly visible.

No wonder that #philae couldn't reestablish contact. It's practically stuck under a boulder l! https://t.co/33KNksfjH0 — Kevin Schawinski (@kevinschawinski) 5 September 2016

There has been an outpouring of delight at the remarkable news.

"With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," said Cecilia Tubiana of the Osiris camera team.

So happy to have seen @Philae2014 again before my mission ends later this month...more about my #CometLanding soon! pic.twitter.com/ErB0ROrgP6 — ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) September 5, 2016

Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta Mission Manager, said: "This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour."

I love the fact that #PhilaeFound is trending on my feed. I love the fact that Philae was found. I just love this entire fact. — ☀️Rachelle Williams☾ (@AstroAnarchy) 5 September 2016

Philae:

10 years in transit

Landed on comet

Bounced (x2)

Stuck in shade

SCIENCED ANYWAY

Lost power

Waited

One month to go

FOUND BY ROSETTA — Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) September 5, 2016

Although there is no hope of reviving the lander, knowing exactly where it is resting will help scientists make better sense of the data it returned during its three days of operation back in 2014.

Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist added: "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."

The discovery comes just a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on the comet Sept 30 to bring its 12-year mission to an end.

"Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta's landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta's touchdown site," said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the Osiris camera.</s>Europe's Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a "dark crack" on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.

Rosetta's camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe's own mission ends, the agency said. The pictures showing the lander's body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 1.7 miles of the surface.

After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.

Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn't be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity was known.

After sending data to Earth for three days its battery ran out and it went into hibernation, only to recharge enough as the comet came closer to the sun to communicate briefly with Rosetta in mid-2015.

ESA plans to crash Rosetta into the comet Sept. 30, because the probe is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun.

Data from Rosetta and Philae have already improved scientists' understanding of the nature of comets and the role they played in the early universe. Analyzing the data fully is expected to keep researchers busy for years.

"We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever," said Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta mission manager. "It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour."

Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said that locating Philae provides missing information "needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context."</s>BERLIN (AP) — Europe's Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a "dark crack" on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.

Rosetta's camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe's own mission ends, the agency said . The pictures showing the lander's body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 2.7 kilometers (1.7 miles) of the surface.

After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.

The photo released by European Space Agency ESA on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 shows a photo of the comet lander Philae on photo taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 2.7 km of the Comet 67P/Churyumov¿Gerasimenko. Philae was last seen when it first touched down at Agilkia, bounced and then flew for another two hours before ending up at a location later named Abydos, on the comet¿s smaller lobe. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS via AP)

Philae bounced after its initial touchdown and its precise location on the comet couldn't be pinned down until now, though its general vicinity was known.

After sending data to Earth for three days its battery ran out and it went into hibernation, only to recharge enough as the comet came closer to the sun to communicate briefly with Rosetta in mid-2015.

ESA plans to crash Rosetta into the comet Sept. 30, because the probe is unlikely to survive lengthy hibernation in orbit as the comet heads away from the sun.

Data from Rosetta and Philae have already improved scientists' understanding of the nature of comets and the role they played in the early universe. Analyzing the data fully is expected to keep researchers busy for years.

"We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever," said Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta mission manager. "It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour."

Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor said that locating Philae provides missing information "needed to put Philae's three days of science into proper context."

The photo released by European Space Agency ESA on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016 shows a photo of the comet lander Philae in a crack on the right side of a photo taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on Sept. 2, 2016 from a distance of 2.7 km of the Comet 67P/Churyumov¿Gerasimenko. Philae was last seen when it first touched down at Agilkia, bounced and then flew for another two hours before ending up at a location later named Abydos, on the comet¿s smaller lobe. (ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS via AP)</s>Europe’s Rosetta space probe has located its lost Philae lander, wedged in a “dark crack” on a comet, the European Space Agency said Monday.Rosetta’s camera finally captured images on Friday of the lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, weeks before the probe’s own mission ends, the agency said. The pictures showing the lander’s body and two of its three legs were taken as Rosetta passed within 1.7 miles of the surface.After being launched in 2004, Rosetta took 10 years to accelerate and catch up with comet 67P. In November 2014 it released Philae, achieving the first landing of a spacecraft on a comet.(nypost.com)…[+]</s>(CNN) Philae, the little space robot that has captured hearts around the world, was thought to be forever lost.

But delighted scientists announced Sunday that the European Space Agency's comet lander has come back from the cosmic dead.

New images downloaded from the Rosetta probe in orbit around the awkwardly named Comet67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show the long-lost Philae wedged in a crack between some rocks. Rosetta captured the images in the nick of time, as its mission is ending in less than a month.

"THE SEARCH IS OVER! I've found @Philae2014!!" announced the Rosetta Mission team on Twitter.

The discovery is the latest twist in an amazing space odyssey.

In November 2014, Philae completed a spectacular landing on the frozen surface of the comet, despite a harpoon system that did not function after its 10-year journey through space.

The lander hopped across the comet's surface, and as people across the globe watched its progress, engineers and scientists announced that Philae was communicating with its ground stations, some 317 million miles (510 million kilometers) away on Earth.

Google dedicated its search page to the lander, and instead of the second letter O in its logo, depicted Philae extending its three legs.

Scientists carried out over 60 hours of research with Philae's instruments, acquiring images, sensing molecules and attempting to hammer the unexpectedly hard surface of the comet.

Among the invaluable scientific data gathered was the dramatic discovery of 16 "carbon and nitrogen-rich" organic compounds, supporting the theory that the building blocks of life could have been brought to Earth by comets.

But then the intrepid little probe ran out of juice. Unable to get the energy it needed from the sun to power its solar panels, its battery went flat and it fell into hibernation mode.

When once again it fell silent, it was assumed Philae had stopped functioning due to the extremely cold environment. The three-legged probe even sent a heartbreaking farewell tweet in July.

"Unfortunately, the probability of Philae re-establishing contact with our team at the DLR Lander Control Center is almost zero, and we will no longer be sending any commands," Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager, announced in February this year. "It would be very surprising if we received a signal now."

But when analysis was completed of the latest pictures from Rosetta's Osiris camera, which were downlinked to Earth on Sunday night, there came a delightful surprise.

The photos show Philae wedged in a shadowy crack, with its boxy, one-meter-wide body and two of its three legs clearly visible.

There has been an outpouring of delight at the remarkable news.

"With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail," said Cecilia Tubiana of the Osiris camera team.

Patrick Martin, ESA's Rosetta Mission Manager, said: "This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search. We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour."

Although there is no hope of reviving the lander, knowing exactly where it is resting will help scientists make better sense of the data it returned during its three days of operation back in 2014.

Matt Taylor, ESA's Rosetta project scientist added: "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."

The discovery comes just a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on the comet Sept 30 to bring its 12-year mission to an end.

"Now that the lander search is finished we feel ready for Rosetta's landing, and look forward to capturing even closer images of Rosetta's touchdown site," said Holger Sierks, principal investigator of the Osiris camera.</s>It has been careering through the solar system on the frozen, dark surface of a comet, completely alone for nearly two years.

Now the Philae lander, which bumped messily down onto the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014, has finally been foundon the comet's surface.

Cameras onboard Europe's comet orbiter Rosetta has spotted the tiny lander Philae for the first time since its crash-landing.

The discovery comes a few weeks before the European Space Agency plans to crash Rosetta on to the comet end its mission.

'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,' it said in a statement.

In July, Philae sent a final farewell tweet as it is to be abandoned to the blackness of space.

Scientists announced they had turned off the communications system on the Rosetta space probe – the lander's mother ship that was designed to relay its messages back to Earth.

Philae was the first spacecraft to land on the surface of a comet, but after its tethering system failed, it bounced uncontrollably until it came to rest in the shadow of a cliff face.

Unable to get the energy it needed from sun to power its solar panels, the three foot wide lander's batteries quickly ran out and it was only able to beam back a snippet of the data that had been hoped for.

Attempts to contact the lander since then were largely unsuccessful, although it managed to send sporadic messages to Rosetta in June and July 2015 as the comet drew closer to the sun.

Since then, there has been no contact from Philae and researchers had given up hope of re-establishing contact with the stricken lander.

Now, as it races away from Earth on the comet at a speed of 35,768 mph, scientists in charge of the mission will today turn off the Electrical Support System on Rosetta that communicates with Philae.

A message posted on Philae's official Twitter feed – posted by officials at the lander's control centre in Cologne rather than the lander itself – said: 'It's time for me to say goodbye. The unit on the @ESA_Rosetta for communication with me will be switched off forever…'

It added: 'Im far from Earth&Sun! I'd love to take memories of YOU with me. Please send me a postcard from home!'

Philae is being turned off to save energy before Rosetta will be sent on a collision course with the comet it has been orbiting for the past two years.

Rosetta's 12 year mission to explore the harsh, alien environment of comet 67P will then end when it crash lands on the rocky, icy surface.

It will mean that after two years of being alone on the surface of the comet, Philae will be joined by the probe that carried it out into the solar system.

A statement released by the European Space Agency said: 'No signal has been received by Rosetta from Philae since last July and earlier this year the lander was considered to be in a state of eternal hibernation.

'In spite of this, the ESS was kept on until now in the unlikely chance that Philae would re-gain contact.

'Although Rosetta has reached altitudes well below 10 km over the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, however, no signal from the lander was received since July 2015.'

After a 10-year journey on board the Rosetta space probe, Philae was released to descend towards the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel.

Sadly a failure of the probe's harpoon system saw it bounce three times before settling at an angle in a dark ditch.

It managed to beam back a handful of pictures before its batteries ran out after 60 hours, thanks to its shady position, and could not be recharged.

Scientists at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) have repeatedly tried to contact the doomed probe since it suffered a bumpy landing and bounced off target thanks to the failure of its harpoon system - with varying levels of success.

In November 2014, controllers released a soundclip of the ominous 'crunch' from vibration sensors in the lander's legs upon from when it hit the comet's dusty surface.

The probe woke up in June 2015 as the comet approached the sun, giving scientists hope that the lander could complete some experiments that it had not done before its solar-powered batteries ran out.

However, its last signal was received on 9 July 2015 and since then it has been silent.

In January, DLR scientists sent a command to Philae to spin its flywheel in the hope of knocking dust from its solar panels to see if they could rouse the lander once more.

Scientists believe that one of the lander's two transmitters and one of its two receivers, have both failed and that the second transmitter and receiver are also no longer fully functional.

While the DLR team believes that Philae is likely ice-free, the solar panels that recharge its batteries are probably covered with dust.

In addition, night-time temperatures can now fall below -180°C (-292°F) as comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko moves away from the sun, which is much colder than Philae was designed to withstand.

While Philae did not have as much time as initially hoped after landing for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets.

Among the discoveries made were that the icy comet appears to carry some of the key building blocks of DNA and proteins – the amino acid glycine and the mineral phosphorus.

ROSETTA'S 'MOST SURPRISING DISCOVERYSO FAR': RESEARCHERS STUNNED TO FIND COMET SURROUNDED BY OXYGEN Air surrounding the comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko is rich with oxygen, The surprise discovery made last year may force a rethink of theories about the origins of the Solar System - but does not imply the presence of life. Experts controlling the ESA's Rosetta orbiter discovered that free oxygen is the fourth most common gas in the atmosphere around Comet 67P. Its other constituents are water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. Oxygen is highly reactive and according to current theories should not exist on its own in such quantities. Over vast amounts of time, most of Comet 67P's oxygen should by now have combined with hydrogen to form water, it was thought. Professor Kathrin Altwegg, project leader for Rosetta's Rosina mass spectrometer instrument, said: 'We had never thought that oxygen could 'survive' for billions of years without combining with other substances.' While microbes and plants are responsible for most of Earth's oxygen, the new discovery does not mean that Comet 67P is teeming with life. Instead, scientists believe the comet's oxygen originated very early, before the solar system had even finished forming. High energy particles are thought to have freed the oxygen by striking grains of ice in the cold and dense birthplace of the solar system, known as a 'dark nebula'. The oxygen was incorporated into the comet nucleus when it was created some 4.6 billion years ago and has remained ever since, according to the researchers writing in the journal Nature. Professor Altwegg added: 'This evidence of oxygen as an ancient substance will likely discredit some theoretical models of the formation of the Solar System.'</s>High-resolution cameras on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft have found space probe Philae, which landed on a comet nearly two years ago only to lose power because its solar-driven batteries were in the shade.

Images taken from Rosetta at a distance of 2.7km showed Philae wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the ESA said on Monday.

Philae landed on the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel but the metre-sized, 100kg probe bounced several times before getting stuck against a cliff wall.

Scientists could tell its approximate whereabouts on the comet thanks to radio ranging data but not its precise location. This year they gave up hope of restoring contact with the probe.

While Philae did not have as much time as was hoped for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets and the project has helped in designing future missions.

“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,” ESA’s Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, said in a statement.

Scientists expect to get a final glimpse of Philae later this month, when Rosetta snaps some pictures during close fly-bys, before crash-landing on the comet itself on Sep 30, ending its 12-year space odyssey.</s>Almost two years after it touched down on the surface of comet 67P, the Philae lander has been found.

In images taken just three days ago by a camera on board the Rosetta space probe, the lander can be seen nestled in a dark crack on the comet’s surface, with two of its three legs sticking out.

“For many people it is a huge emotional closure, but for the scientists it is incredibly important because it now tells us where the measurements were taken that we made with Philae back in 2014 - that context is everything,” said Mark McCaughrean, senior scientific adviser at the European Space Agency (ESA).

About the size of a washing machine and featuring a host of scientific instruments, ESA’s lander was released from the Rosetta space probe on 12 November 2014, touching down on the rubber-duck shaped comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after a nail-biting, seven-hour descent. At the time the comet was 320m miles from Earth, and this was the first time a manmade object had landed on a comet.

But there was a snag. Philae’s two harpoons, which were supposed to anchor the lander, did not fire and Philae bounced across the surface of the comet. The lander finally came to rest near a cliff, but the shady location meant that, except for a brief interlude in mid-2015, its solar panels were unable to catch the sun’s rays.

Despite the bumpy ride, the lander was able to send back valuable data before its batteries ran out, offering insights into the comet’s make-up and properties of its surface.

While researchers were able to narrow down its location to a few tens of metres, its precise location remained a mystery, until now.

“We had some images from further away that looked a bit like the lander, but we really needed this unambiguous [image],” said Matt Taylor, the ESA’s Rosetta project scientist. “We needed that to say ‘yes, it is definitely Philae.’”

News of the discovery, said Taylor, reached him late at night over the weekend. “It is a typical thing with Rosetta, things seem to occur at the weekends and usually on Sunday.”



The discovery of the lander’s location, he said, would help scientists to interpret information that it gathered before its batteries ran out.

“It allows us to go back to the data that Philae took to put it into context a little bit more,” he said.

Among such measurements, are data collected by the Consert instrument, which fired radio signals between the lander and the Rosetta orbiter to probe the internal make-up of the comet. “Having the precise location of the lander allows you to refine those measurements and get much better resolution from those,” said Taylor. “It provides us with the ground truth.”

The news comes just weeks after communication with the lander was severed. In July scientists said farewell to Philae after deeming it to be in a state of “eternal hibernation”. The voice of the lander tweeted: “It’s time for me to say goodbye.”

The Rosetta mission itself is shortly to come to an end, with the probe due to be set on a collision course with the comet later this month. 



“What we are doing at the moment is actually more complicated than when we deployed Philae itself,” said Taylor, adding that Rosetta was being put in ever-closer orbits around the comet, yielding new data about 67P’s low atmosphere.



Finding Philae, he says, was a timely discovery. “I think it is a nice prelude for the end of the mission,” said Taylor. “It’s bloody exciting.”</s>From aliens bursting forth from crew members’ chests to onboard computers developing a psychopathic mind of their own, waking from space hibernation rarely results in a happy ending. But a real-life space voyage has bucked the trend of science-fiction counterparts such as Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as one of humankind’s greatest achievements “woke up” to the great relief of its earthbound masters.

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, phoned home and made contact with the European Space Agency (ESA) for the first time in seven months on Saturday. In a series of whimsical messages, ESA scientists revealed contact had been re-established with the probe through the Philae lander and Rosetta mission’s Twitter accounts.

Travelling at up to 84,000mph and more than 300m miles away from Earth, the comet known as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko seemed like an impossible target. ESA, however, pulled off a sensational feat of engineering and captured the imagination of space-travel enthusiasts across the world when it launched Philae from its orbiting mothership Rosetta and landed it on the duck-shaped comet’s surface on 12 November after a 10-year journey.

With its solar panels in shadow, the dishwasher-sized probe was operational for just 60 hours before its batteries died on 15 November and it was placed into hibernation. Since then, ESA has been hoping there will be enough sunlight to allow the lander to wake up, re-establish a communication link and send back a “hello” signal.



Now the wait is over. Signals were picked up at ESA’s operation centre in Darmstadt, Germany, at 10.30pm (9.30pm BST) on Saturday via Rosetta for just 85 seconds. “Philae is doing very well. It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 watts available,” said Philae’s project manager, Dr Stephan Ulamec. “The lander is ready for operations.”

More than 300 data packets have been analysed and there are a further 8,000 in Philae’s memory, which will give the team information on what happened to the lander in the past few days.



The Rosetta mission’s chief scientist, Matt Taylor, famous for tattoos that include Rosetta on one leg, said he felt “absolute elation”. The British scientist told the Guardian: “I heard last night. A message came up on my phone and I was like, ‘What?’ It was a surprise. It was difficult getting to sleep. It’s absolute elation.”



While the probe had already returned enough data for scientists to address questions of where the comet might have come from and how old it is, the team may now be able to progress the mission further, Taylor said. Drilling into the surface to analyse samples of its composition would be among the next steps for ESA to take.

“It means we can do even more science now if everything goes positively over the next few days,” Taylor said. But he warned it was early days as only a limited amount of contact had been established. It’s just pinged us a short signal. Things look good – better than expected. Things look promising, but we can’t see much more. This is just housekeeping – there’s no science going on yet. It’s a waiting game.”

Reacting to the latest development, Prof Monica Grady, a key member of the Rosetta science team at the Open University, tweeted:

The Rosetta team was unable to determine precisely where the lander touched down on the comet after it bounced twice on the icy surface when its anchoring system failed. Studies of images taken by the Rosetta orbiter revealed the probe had crossed a large depression before coming to rest at an angle, close to the wall of a crater or cliff. Data from one of the probe’s instruments suggested it was on a “landing strip” on the comet’s smaller lobe measuring 350 metres (1,148ft) by 30 metres (98 feet).



When analysing the latest status data, ESA said it became clear that Philae must also have been awake earlier. 



With more than 2,000 people involved in its development, the Rosetta mission is one of the most complex and ambitious ever undertaken and the first to orbit and land on a comet. It was launched to aid understanding of the evolution of the solar system. The comet’s makeup reflects that of a cloud of gas out of which the sun itself was formed more than 4.6bn years ago.</s>Images taken from Rosetta at a distance of 2.7 km (1.7 miles) showed Philae wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the ESA said on Monday.

Philae landed on the comet in November 2014 in what was considered a remarkable feat of precision space travel but the metre-sized, 100 kg (220 lb) probe bounced several times before getting stuck against a cliff wall.

Scientists could tell its approximate whereabouts on the comet thanks to radio ranging data but not its precise location. This year they gave up hope of restoring contact with the probe.

While Philae did not have as much time as was hoped for experiments, information it has collected is reshaping thinking about comets and the project has helped in designing future missions.

"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," ESA's Rosetta project scientist, Matt Taylor, said in a statement.

Scientists expect to get a final glimpse of Philae later this month, when Rosetta snaps some pictures during close fly-bys, before crash-landing on the comet itself on Sept. 30, ending its 12-year space odyssey.
The European Space Agency's robotic lander Philae is discovered wedged in a crack between some rocks in the shadow of a cliff on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko by the Rosetta space probe after being lost since 2014.