[Scarlett.]

A key milestone has been reached in the quest to land a spacecraft on a comet.

Controllers say they have now made radio contact with the descending Philae robot, meaning they should be able to receive pictures from it.

Philae was dropped towards Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the European Space Agency's Rosetta satellite at 08:35 GMT.

The mission will shine a light on some mysteries surrounding these icy relics from the formation of our Solar System.

Confirmation of touchdown is expected at Earth sometime around 16:00 GMT.

Read more, and live updates

Livestream here

[LeatherTrumpet]

This hopefully will be amazing

[Northern Monkey]

Let's hope all goes well incase we ever have to do this to stop a comet impacting us.Nice to know we can if we need to.

[Livia]

It's it amazing that a civilisation that can cause so much destruction, can also do such utterly brilliant things as this?

[LeatherTrumpet]

Jonathan Amos @BBCAmos

Data coming back from those @Philae2014 instruments that are switched on. The probe is very slowly rotating as it goes down. #CometLanding
22 Minutes ago

[Scarlett.]

and it's landed successfully!

[LeatherTrumpet]

Its quite staggering to think about

[Northern Monkey]

Next job,Colonise Mars and the Moon.We should be masters of our solar system.

[Shaun]

Brilliant news

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by EyeballPaul

Next job,Colonise Mars and the Moon.We should be masters of our solar system.

er... we have do defeat the Klingons first and they are no push overs

[Josy]

I cleaned this thread, stick to the topic in the OP from now on.

[JoshBB]

Originally Posted by EyeballPaul

Next job,Colonise Mars and the Moon.We should be masters of our solar system.

What if we had a government for the moon specifically?

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by JoshBB

What if we had a government for the moon specifically?

That could only ever be disasterous.It could surely only ever end in war between the Moonlings and Earthings

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by LeatherTrumpet

er... we have do defeat the Klingons first and they are no push overs

Meh,We would'nt fight the Klingons,We would find a way to integrate them into our society.We would give them social housing and benefits and build Klingon temples in Bradford and Luton

[arista]

[LeatherTrumpet]

hopefully we will get surface pics today


that would be amazing


It would take a light beam 28 mins to reach the comet


"Light travels at a constant, finite speed of 186,000 mi/sec. A traveler, moving at the speed of light, would circum-navigate the equator approximately 7.5 times in one second. By comparison, a traveler in a jet aircraft, moving at a ground speed of 500 mph, would cross the continental U.S. once in 4 hours."

[Nedusa]

Wouldn't it be ironic if the act of actually landing on this comet changes its trajectory ever so slightly putting it on a collision course with Earth.

What's the chances ?




.

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Wouldn't it be ironic if the act of actually landing on this comet changes its trajectory ever so slightly putting it on a collision course with Earth.

What's the chances ?




.

none

[Livia]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Wouldn't it be ironic if the act of actually landing on this comet changes its trajectory ever so slightly putting it on a collision course with Earth.

What's the chances ?

.

I like it. We should collaborate on a screenplay!

Made me smile to see all the lovely geeks on the news last night, celebrating and eating cake LOL... it's an amazing achievement.

[Scarlett.]

[LeatherTrumpet]

Originally Posted by Chewy

It reminds me of Falkirk of an evening

[Northern Monkey]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Wouldn't it be ironic if the act of actually landing on this comet changes its trajectory ever so slightly putting it on a collision course with Earth.

What's the chances ?




.

You think like me,This has briefly flashed through my mind also.

[Scarlett.]

The European Space Agency (Esa) says its comet lander, Philae, has woken up and contacted Earth.

Philae, the first spacecraft to land on a comet, was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by its mothership, Rosetta, last November.

It worked for 60 hours before its solar-powered battery ran flat.

The comet has since moved nearer to the sun and Philae has enough power to work again, says the BBC's science correspondent Jonathan Amos.

The probe tweeted the message, "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?"

On its blog, Esa said that Philae contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.



"Philae is doing very well. It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 watts available," said Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec.

Scientists say they now waiting for the next contact.

BBC News

[arista]

Yes Chewy
The Sunshine is charging it up.

I hope it finds my relatives