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Philae lander touches down on comet 67P

Philae lander illustration

The lander Philae, illustrated above, has landed safely on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

ATG medialab/ESA

By Ashley Yeager

DARMSTADT, GERMANY — Philae has landed. Scientists confirmed that the robot touched down safely on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on November 12 despite a potential issue with the lander’s thruster. 

A detailed story is now available. See all of SN‘s Rosetta coverage.

Updated, November 13 at 10:39 CET: Mission control is now reporting that Philae actually touched down three times yesterday, at 15:33, 17:26 and 17:33 UTC.

About Ashley Yeager

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.

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