The three-tonne probe blasted off aboard an an Ariane V rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in 2004 20/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, the spacecraft measures 32 m across including the solar arrays, while the comet nucleus is thought to be about 4 km wide 21/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission The spacecraft, festooned with 25 instruments between its lander and orbiter (including three from NASA), is programmed to 'wake up' from hibernation 22/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission An Ariane V carrying the three-tonne probe Rosetta blasting off from Kourou, beginning a decade-long quest to hunt a comet in the depths of the Solar System and shadow it around the Sun in a bid to tease out secrets of how life began on Earth 1/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Image of Comet 67P/CG taken by the Philae lander from a distance of approximately 3km from the surface 2/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Rosetta's lander Philae took this parting shot of its mothership shortly after separation 3/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Parting shot of the Philae lander after separation, captured by one of Rosetta's cameras 4/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission A technician celebrates after the successful landing of the Philae lander, in the control room at the ESA headquarters in Darmstadt Reuters 5/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Scientists celebrate at a mission observation centre in Toulouse, southern France as they receive information that Philae has landed on the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet AP 6/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Astronomer Klim Ivanovych Churyumov, who discovered the comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 1969, reacts after the successful landing of the Philae lander on the comet Reuters 7/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission A model demonstrates how the landing device Philae, of the space probe Rosetta, stands on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at the press center of the satellite control center of the European Space Agency in Darmstadt, Germany EPA 8/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission An artist impression of Rosetta's lander Philae on the surface of comet Getty Images 9/22 European Space Agency's Rosetta mission Picture taken on October 28 by the navigation camera on Rosetta shows the boulder-strewn neck region of comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Farewell Rosetta, you’ve done the job, that was space science at its best.”

Scientists faced a nail-biting 40 minute wait for confirmation that it had touched down and to see the last images captured by Rosetta, taken around 15 metres from the comet’s surface. The spacecraft and its lander, which bounced onto the surface of the comet on November, 2014, have produced a wealth of data providing valuable clues about the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. Scientists have already heralded a number of discoveries about the chemical composition of the comet that provide crucial insights into the formation of the solar system and theories about the origin of life on Earth. “That’s nothing like what we imagined.”

One of the crucial differences between Rosetta and previous missions was the probe’s ability to study one comet for an extended period of time. Professor Monica Grady, a space scientist at the Open University who works on Ptolemy, one of Philae’s gas and dust detectors, recalls being “knocked out” by the first detailed surface imagery.
The European Space Agency's Rosetta space probe ends its 12-year mission studying comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in a "collision maneuver" into the comet's surface.