This morning marks one of the most exciting moments in space exploration in years: Rosetta’s lander, Philae, will touch down on the comet 67P/Churyumov — Gerasimenko. It’s still making its way down to the comet, but the little lander that could is already snapping photos and sending them home.
Rosetta and Philae, which each have adorably anthropomorphised Twitter accounts, discussed the following “postcard”, showing the view looking back at Rosetta after Philae had separated from its mama-craft:
https://twitter.com/Philae2014
Philae, which took the image using CIVA — one of the many gadgets the lander is taking to the comet — reported that it liked the view, and there are plenty more to come:
https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta
You can clearly see Rosetta’s solar array, despite the reflections of the sun and the blur. About an hour later, Rosetta sent its own postcard — this one of Philae:
https://twitter.com/ESA_Rosetta
Follow along with us here as we watch space history being made this morning: