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  ESA makes mankind's first landing on a cometNov 13, 2014 5:28 AM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:The ESA's Philae lander landed on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko today and sent back a photo from the surface. It's mankind's first ever landing on a comet, and actually it was three landings; the harpoons that were supposed to tether Philae to the comet's surface failed to deploy, so the lander bounced twice before settling on the comet; there was a great deal of consternation after it was discovered the harpoons hadn't fired, because it wasn't clear whether or not Philae had landed successfully or landed and bounced off into the void, and there is still some concern that trying to drill into the comet to test its composition will fling the untethered lander into space, since "gravity on the comet is 1/100,000th that of Earth, meaning the washing machine-sized lander weighs just 1 gram (0.04 ounces) there." It is also possible that the tethers can still be fired, but whether or not this would be likely to help at this point is still being investigated.
 
 
 
 
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