A European probe that landed on a comet in a first for space exploration is resting on the surface despite technical problems, pictures beamed half a billion kilometres back to Earth showed on Thursday.<br /><br />The European Space Agency (ESA) has published an image of the 100-kg lander – virtually weightless in its current environment – on the comet’s bleak, rocky surface.<br /><br />It said data showed the lander had twice bounced back into space after touching down on Wednesday, but then come to rest at around 1830 CET.<br /><br />The lander, named Philae, was launched from its mothership Rosetta on Wednesday as it orbited comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the climax of a 10-year-odyssey for the ESA.<br /><br />But during Philae’s seven-hour descent to the comet, harpoons designed to anchor it failed to deploy, raising concerns the lander might drift back into space.<br /><br />Scientists hope that samples drilled out from the comet by Philae will unlock details about how the planets – and possibly even life – evolved, as the rock and ice that make up comets preserve ancient organic molecules like a time capsule.<br /><br />Comets date back to the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists suspect impacting comets delivered water to early Earth.<br /><br />(Reuters)
