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© ESAClose-up: The new images shed new light on the icy comet's surface. This image, taken from just 30ft (nine metres) away, allows you to see images that are just an inch across in unprecedented detail.
The European Space Agency has released spectacular images from the perspective of the Philae lander, as it completed its daring descent to comet 67P.

The images document the probe's fall, and could even reveal where it finally took up residence after a bumpy landing last November.

Researchers believe there is even evidence that the comet-lander dropped into a hole about its own size just three feet (0.9 metres) away from a towering cliff.

Newly published data from the mission shows that the craft was also surrounded by boulders up to a metre wide and came to rest with one of its three feet pointing up.

Data collected during its landing has also just been released, revealed a 'rich variety' or organic material that could be the seeds for life on other planets.

In June, scientists announced that the craft had woken up from hibernation, seven months after bouncing dramatically on to the surface of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Standing in partial shadow, the washing machine-sized probe couldn't keep itself warm or generate sufficient electricity from its solar panels, and shut down.

More light was thought to be reaching its solar panels as the comet travelled closer to the sun.

Experts analysing a wealth of information from Philae have reported some of their first results in the latest issue of the journal Science.
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© ESALegs akimbo: This image was taken at the final landing site Abydos, on the small lobe of the comet. The image has been processed to reveal the backlit fractured ‘cliff’, nicknamed ‘perihelion cliff’, and the foot of the lander, which is reflecting on the surface of the cliff and does not seem to be resting on the comet’s surface.
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© ESAThe European Space Agency's Philae lander descended to the surface of the comet from the Rosetta probe in November 2014, making a bumpier-than-expected landing on the icy and dusty body. It survived on battery power for about 60 hours before falling silent. This image shows the comet from around two miles away.
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© APIn this November 12, 2014 image taken by the Rosetta Lander Imaging System (ROLIS), the comet surface from an altitude of 221ft (67.4 meters) when the Philae lander slowly descended onto Comet 67P.
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© EPAResearchers have revealed that the comet-lander dropped into a hole about its own size just three feet (0.9 metres) away from a towering cliff. Newly published data from the mission shows that the craft was also surrounded by boulders up to a metre wide and came to rest with one of its three feet pointing up.

One paper, based on analysis of images taken by the probe's seven cameras.

It provides more detail about what happened when the craft landed after leaving the orbiting Rosetta mothership on November 12.

Others describe organic compounds detected by Philae, including four never before identified on a comet, but nothing clearly defined as a building block of life.

Philae did not stay long at its intended landing site, a soft granular surface about a foot deep with a harder layer below.

Instead it bounced twice, finally coming to rest in a different location more than half a mile away.

The image team, led by Dr Jean-Pierre Bibring, from the Universite Paris-Sud in France, described how Philae seemed to be 'in a hole about its own size, partially shadowed by nearby boulders or cliffs'.

One foot was probably stuck in a 'local cavity', another rested on a sun-lit surface, and the third was 'pointing upward'.

The researchers added: 'The landing site is dominated by metre-scale blocks, with a large elongated cliff, starting around one metre away.

'These large structures are responsible for Philae being partially shadowed, drastically limiting its energy intake for both warming up the internal compartment and supplying the solar panels.'

German-led scientists in charge of an instrument called Cosac (Cometary Sampling and Composition) reported the collection of organic molecules from six miles above the comet's surface, after initial touchdown, and at the final landing site.
ROSETTA: THE STORY SO FAR

The Rosetta probe, which was carrying Philae, launched into space in 2004, using the gravity of Earth and Mars to slingshot its way towards comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

It chased the comet through space for more than ten years, entering orbit in August 2014.

After a four-billion-mile (6.4 billion km) journey, the probe then successfully released the Philae lander from its grip to land on the comet on 12 November 2014, travelling at 3.3ft (one metre) a second relative to the comet.

But when it first made contact with the surface it failed to fire harpoons that would have kept it attached to the comet.

This resulted in it bouncing to a height of 0.62 miles (1km) above the comet before again landing on the surface. It then bounced again, but to a much lower altitude.

Philae managed to perform more than 90 per cent of its goals before running out of power. Rosetta, meanwhile, is continuing to orbit and study the comet.

From data collected by the two probes, Esa said that water on the comet was different to that on Earth - suggesting water on our world came from an asteroid, not a comet.
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© EPABased on the most recent calculations, Philae’s location has been revised. The best fit area is marked in red, a good fit is marked in yellow, with areas on the white strip corresponding to previous estimates now discounted.
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© APThe landing site Abydos is pictured on the day after the Philae lander descended onto Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists say the Philae space probe has gathered data supporting the theory that comets can serve as cosmic laboratories in which some of the essential elements for life are assembled.
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© ESAPhilae managed to perform more than 90 per cent of its goals before running out of power. Rosetta, meanwhile, is continuing to orbit and study the duck-shaped comet.
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© ESAThis is one of the first images returned by Philae from the surface of the comet. Standing in partial shadow, the washing machine-sized probe couldn't keep itself warm or generate sufficient electricity from its solar panels.
They found 16 organic compounds, four of which - methyl isocyanate, acetone, propionaldehyde and acetamide - were previously unknown to exist on comets.

A shoe-box sized gas-sniffing instrument called Ptolemy, operated by a British team led by Professor Ian Wright, from the Open University, also analysed organic compounds.

It indicated the presence of a polyoxymethylene (POM), an organic polymer, or chained compound, on the comet surface.

POM has been suggested as playing a key role in prebiotic chemistry.

Electromagnetic signals fired through the centre of the comet also showed the object had a uniform structure that was highly porous.

But so far Philae has produced no evidence of amino acids, which chain together to form proteins, the building blocks of life.

Many experts believe comets carried the raw ingredients of life to Earth and other planets in the solar system.
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This diagram shows Philae’s measurements at Abydos, its final landing site on the comet. The graph at top shows the average surface temperature profile measured by the thermal mapper ranging between –180ºC and ‘highs’ of about –145ºC in sync with the comet’s 12.4 hour day.
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Many experts believe comets, such as 67P seen in this image, carried the key ingredients of life to Earth.

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Philae did not stay long at its intended landing site, a soft granular surface about a foot deep with a harder layer below. Instead it bounced twice, finally coming to rest in a different location more than half a mile away. Pictured is an artist's impression.