At a Glance

The European Space Agency's Philae lander has finally been located after two years. The device was found wedged into a crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

After missing for two years, the European Space Agency’s Philae lander has finally been spotted wedged into a dark crack on a comet.

Images taken by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera , according to a release from the ESA. The black and white photos show the main body of the device, along with two of its three legs.

In the image above, a number of the Philae lander's features can be made out.

(ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

“With only a month left of the Rosetta mission, we are so happy to have finally imaged Philae, and to see it in such amazing detail,” OSIRIS camera team member Cecilia Tubiana said in the release. She was the first person to see the images when they came in from the orbiting Rosetta probe.

after making its historic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the ESA also reports. In addition to having a faulty thruster, the lander failed to fire the harpoons that would have locked it to the surface of the comet. It bounced from its initial touchdown point at Agilkia to Abydos almost a mile away.

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Trapped in a dark crack without sufficient sunlight, Philae was unable to charge its secondary batteries and fell into hibernation, cutting off communication and making it difficult to find. It woke up briefly in June and July 2015 and communicated with Rosetta as the comet moved closer to the Sun, making more power available.

“This remarkable discovery comes at the end of a long, painstaking search,” Rosetta mission manager Patrick Martin said in the release. “We were beginning to think that Philae would remain lost forever. It is incredible we have captured this at the final hour.”

On Sept. 30, Rosetta will be sent on one last one-way mission to investigate the comet up close.

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