Abu Dhabi residents gather to watch probe make historic landing on comet

ESA’s little Philae takes one giant step for space science.

Paolo Ferri, right, head of Rosetta mission operations, seen on a video projection behind a model of the Philae lander, and a colleague savour the moment as it touches down. Ralph Orlowski / Reuters

The European Space Agency (ESA) on Wednesday night made history by becoming the first to land a spacecraft on a comet.

After a 10-year, 6.4-billion-kilometre piggyback trip across the solar system, Philae, a robotic probe, touched down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenk as it whizzed along its six-and-a-half-year orbit around the Sun and Jupiter.

The probe's landing at 8pm was made possible after it had hitched a ride on Rosetta, an ESA spaceship.

The data beamed back to Earth from Philae will help scientists understand comets, answering the question of whether comets – composed of ice and rock – provided Earth with its crucial precedent for life: water.

Space enthusiasts gathered at the Gems American School planetarium in Abu Dhabi to witness the first time that human beings had landed a probe on a comet.

“It’s very exciting. It’s a great step for humanity and I’m really excited that they do these things live over the internet for us,” said James Walker, planetarium director at Gems.

He said that moments like these were great to promote the sciences and offer the public a rare chance to visit the planetarium, the only one in the capital.

Athina Bohner, a Grade 7 pupil, said: “I believe that this historic achievement is going to change astronomy and science from now onwards. I mean, just a few decades ago we were still dreaming about having a man land on the Moon.

“Now there is a robot landing on a fast-flying comet. I think that this was a key moment in astronomy because now we have even higher goals to reach and further skies to explore.”

As for Andy Palado, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Astronomy Club, the Philae landing is a moment he will always remember.

“It’s really history because we finally did it,” said Mr Palado. “I’ll see this always as a big achievement because of how difficult the mission was.”

He said that the moment reminded him of another monumental time in astral history.

“I think I have the same feeling as did the first Muslim scholars who looked to the sky with telescopes and saw the galaxy,” he said.

As for the mission, seven hours before the successful landing, scientists detached Philae from its host spaceship to travel 22.5 kilometres through space guided only by the weak gravitational pull of the comet.

On landing, the space probe fired harpoons into the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice to anchor the spaceship. But ESA scientists said the harpoons did not fire as intended and they would have to decide whether to refire the anchors.

Philae's mission now will be to conduct nine experiments, ranging from analysing thermal properties of the surface to its gas composition before snapping a panoramic photo of its view.

The main analysis done by the probe’s portable science lab will carry on for the next three days, and it will continue to conduct experiments for months afterwards if the solar panels deploy.

Scientists hope analysis of the comet’s surface materials will offer fresh clues into the origins of our solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

But as the comet gets closer to the Sun, the temperatures will continue to rise and Philae will cease to operate by March next year.

Rosetta had been orbiting the comet for three months, snapping photographs and assessing a landing point for Philae. The findings can be found on ESA's website and the agency will continue to provide updates about the status of the spaceship.