The Rosetta mission’s historic landing of a robotic spacecraft on a comet has brought to a head one of humankind’s timeless questions: are we alone in the universe? For the project’s leading land scientist, that answer may soon be on the horizon.After a tense seven-hour wait, the lander module Philae touched down on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko at 16:03 GMT on Wednesday. The European Space Agency’s (ESA) mission control in Darmstadt was beside itself with joy. The impossible had become reality. And it was only the beginning.
READ MORE: First #CometLanding in history as Rosetta's Philae touches down
Soon, the first descent image came in, the clarity of the comet surface seemingly from a Hollywood blockbuster. Despite that amazing feat, what follows could revolutionize our understanding of life itself.
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