Rosetta: March 2, 2004 – September 30, 2016

Rosetta captured this view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko when the craft was 3.6 miles (5.8km) above its final resting place. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA) On this cold boulder-strewn surface lies Rosetta. The European spacecraft launched 12.5 years ago, into a life filled with exploration. Most of that time was spent traveling to her destination, Comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko, where Rosetta has since perished. She arrived at that target on August 6, 2014, and spent 786 days exploring the comet’s long-hidden secrets. Her life ended this morning, with an intentional and controlled crash-landing into her two-year home. During her life, Rosetta showed how complex comets are. She revealed Comet 67P’s surprising shape: not of a potato as expected, but instead of two lobes that looks oddly like a duck. Astronomers think both of those lobes formed separately and then adhered together after a low-speed collision. The spacecraft’s 11 scientific instruments detected ...