On 12 November 2014 the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission put the small lander Philae onto comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the first soft landing on a comet nucleus. Harpoons failed to anchor it, so it bounced twice and came to rest in a shaded spot where its solar panels got little light, but it still sent back data for 64 hours. Rosetta itself orbited the comet for two years, detecting organic molecules and showing that the water on the comet differs from that of Earth's oceans.
Before and after
- 22 October 2014Wikipedia Monument
- 24 October 2014Founding of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
- 3 November 2014Construction of One World Trade Center
- 3 November 2014Creation of Android Lollipop
- 12 November 2014Rosetta's Philae lander touches down on a comet
- 3 December 2014Launch of Hayabusa2
- 5 December 2014Nut rage incident
- 16 December 20142014 Peshawar school attack
- from 28 December 2014 to 12 July 2021Resolute Support Mission
More in Exploration & discovery
- 3 August 1958The USS Nautilus crosses the North Pole under the ice
- 14 July 1965Mariner 4 sends the first close-up pictures of Mars
- 3 December 1973Pioneer 10 flies past Jupiter
- 1 September 1985The wreck of the Titanic is found
- 26 September 2022DART spacecraft deflects an asteroid
- 23 August 2023Chandrayaan-3 lands near the lunar south pole
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 21st century.