Probe lands on comet

Lots of hugging going on in Europe today. The European Space Agency has successfully made a soft landing on a comet! Dave Gilbert writes:

Led by ESA with a consortium of partners including NASA, scientists on the Rosetta mission hope to learn more about the composition of comets and how they interact with the solar wind -- high energy particles blasted into space by the Sun.

Philae, which has spent 10 years fixed to the side of Rosetta during the journey across the solar system, could not be steered. Once it was released, it was on its own.
How Rosetta lands on the comet How Rosetta lands on the comet

Before the spacecraft separation, O'Rourke told CNN that the orbiter Rosetta had to be in the right position to allow the craft to "free fall" on the correct trajectory to the chosen landing site.

Scientists are hoping the probe will help us learn a lot more about the composition of comets and how they react when they get close to the Sun.

But wait: there might be a problem:

However, project scientists believe anchors that hold the probe to the surface failed to work properly and are now trying to find out why, according to ESA tweets.

Read more here.