HONG KONG: The European Space Agency has released a picture it says clue at where the Philae lander dispatched to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko came to rest.
Comet-watchers will recall that Philae was carried to 67P by the Rosetta spacecraft, which dropped the washing-machine-sized lander last November 12th. All went well until the lander bounced, before landing in a shady spot where its solar panels were unable to collect enough energy to keep it operating and doing science.
The ESA describes the photo as probably depicting the probe “above the rim of the large depression – named Hatmehit – on the comet’s small lobe.” The image has “been used to guide subsequent lander search efforts, and provides the basis for trajectory reconstructions.”
Those efforts have resulted in the release of the image below, which the ESA says depicts an area where Philae is suspected to have landed. The bad news is that at this scale the probe would be occupy about three pixels, and as the region is strewn with boulders there are lots of objects one could mistake for Philae
