On November 12 at around 1630 CET a small probe called Philea, launched from a bigger probe named Rosetta has successfully landed on the comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko achieving a massive advance for humankind in the quest of understanding the creation of earth and exploring space around us (more information here ).

Rosetta, Nile delta and knowledge

Beside the complexity of this accomplishment, the names given to the probes are quite significant and mirrors the ever-going development of civilizations. Rosetta for instance is the name of a town in the north west of Egypt in the delta of the Nile river. The town is known since it is there where the Rosetta stone was discovered and deciphered by the French Jean-François Champollion in 1822. The Rosetta stone, the most visited object in the British museum, allowed us to understand the Egyptian hieroglyphs that paved the way to understanding how advanced this civilization was, and how it contributed the development of the world sciences in different fields.

Philae, completes Rosetta and symbol for team work

The name Philae is the name of an island in the south of Egypt in Lake Nasser. It was the site of the an ancient Egyptian temple (Philae temple), that was dismantled and displaced to nearby Agilkia Island during a Unesco project in the 1960's to save it from the rise of the Nile water level caused by the construction of the High Dam. Beside the magnificence of the Philae temple, the site contained an obelisk that was used along with the Rosetta stone to fully decipher the hieroglyphs together representing the complete key to this wealth of knowledge. Moreover calling the present probe Philae, I believe, points to the collaboration that was required to save the temple, thus reflecting the power of the team effort and the fact that 20 different countries participated to the actual building of the current probe.