The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Rosetta is a science mission and it is using 21 onboard instruments (11 on the orbiter, 10 on the lander) to explore two key scientific questions: did water on Earth come from comets and did comets help kick start life on Earth?
Since Rosetta came out of hibernation in January, we now know comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko’s mass (around 10 billion tonnes), shape (rubber duck) and rotation (every 12 hours and 24 minutes). Its cameras have shown gas and dust streaming away from the comet, locating areas of activity and imaging them for the first time. The orbiter has also captured dust grains and detected water and gases in the comet’s atmosphere or coma.
The film is an overview of the science so far and what lies ahead when the Philae lander descends and lands on the comet’s surface. The A-roll contains a soundbite in English from Rosetta Mission Manager, Fred Jansen, at ESA’s European and Space Technology Research Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands beside a 1000:1 scale model of the comet.
The B-roll contains several additional soundbites from Fred Jansen in English and Dutch as well as animations of the comet and the Philae lander.