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Entered orbit around 67P at 09:06 UTC on 6 August 2014. On 30 September 2016 mission ended in an attempt to slow land on the comet's surface near a 130 m (425 ft) wide pit called Deir el-Medina. Ariane 5G+ Philae: 2 March 2004: ESA / DLR Germany: 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko: Lander Successful: Carried by Rosetta.
Flyby; discovered Dactyl; first asteroid with a moon visited by a spacecraft, largest asteroid visited by spacecraft at the time. 253 Mathilde: 66 × 48 × 46 (58 km) 1885 NEAR Shoemaker: 1997 1,212: 49.5 Flyby; largest asteroid visited by a spacecraft at the time. 433 Eros: 34 × 11 × 11 (17 km) 1898 NEAR Shoemaker: 1998–2001 landed: landed
The Luna programme was the first successful lunar programme, its Luna 1 (1959) being the first partially successful lunar mission The first image taken of the far side of the Moon, returned by Luna 3 (1959) Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959.
The research team believes an asteroid impact created the basin about 4.2 billion to 4.3 billion years ago and unearthed magnesium-rich minerals like olivine, mixing them into the lunar soil, said ...
All five missions were successful, and 99% of the Moon was mapped from photographs taken with a resolution of 60 meters (200 ft) or better. The first three missions were dedicated to imaging 20 potential human lunar landing sites, selected based on Earth-based observations. These were flown at low inclination orbits.
One further focus of such investigation—besides the basic composition and geologic history of the various Solar System bodies—is the presence of the building blocks of life on comets, asteroids, Mars or the moons of the gas giants. Several sample-return missions to asteroids and comets are currently in the works.
An image shows the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in March 2015. New research from NASA says Jupiter-family comets like this one could have been potential sources of water for early Earth ...
There are 293 confirmed moons in our cosmic neighborhood. By studying these worlds, astronomers hope to learn about ancient asteroid collisions, space volcanoes, and the origins of life itself.