A space adventure intended to expand out understanding of how the solar system was created some 4.6 billion years ago has landed a space robot called Philae on a comet six billion kilometres from Earth. Philae was launched from a mother ship, Rosetta, which carried the robot lander from lift-off ten years ago to its critical descent journey within recent hours. There has been a hitch in the plan however as the status of Philae remains somewhat unknown. Harpoons on the robot failed to anchor it to the surface of the comet. The European Space Agency said the lander launched on schedule today (Wednesday, November 12, 2014) after a seven-hour descent from its orbiting mother ship. But during the free fall to the comet’s surface, the harpoons were non-starters for some reason. The agency hopes to know more about the state of the probe by Thursday. Scientists hope that samples drilled out from the comet will unlock details about how the planets evolved. Comets date to the formation of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists suspect impacting comets delivered water to the young Earth. Rosetta and the Philae craft have cameras and nearly two dozen instruments to probe the comet’s surface — and to analyze the material below it.
