Update, Thursday morning: Not just one landing, but three

According to the ESA, which spent the night trying to make sense of the Philae lander's strange docking maneuver, the lucky lander bounced off the surface of comet C-G no less than three times before finally settling down.

Philae first ricocheted off the comet immediately upon impact at 10:33 a.m. Eastern time. (As we reported yesterday, the lander's dual harpoons failed to eject and anchor it to the rocky comet) This initial bounce pushed Philae hundreds of feet into the air before the comet's weak gravity pulled it back in. Its next two (much gentler) bounces happened at 12:26 p.m. and finally at 12:33 p.m. Eastern, yet the hardy robot seems to be completely unharmed.

So where is it now? The ESA is trying to pin down Philae's exact coordinates, but we do know it's currently resting in the shadow of a giant cliff. See for yourself in this first picture from the lander (above).

Update, Wednesday morning: Harpoons or no harpoons, the Philae lander is doing just fine

Stephan Ulamet, the head ESA scientist in charge of the Philae lander, has just given a reassuring announcement. Despite the complications, Philae is sitting pretty on comet C-G and is already beaming back photos and data.

"Right now the lander is not anchored to the surface, and we're not sure if we have landed in a nice soft 'sandbox', or if something else is happening," Ulamet said in a briefing this afternoon. Whatever happened, Philae is on the ground, fully powered, and working perfectly. Phew.

While the ESA is still working on whether or not to re-fire the harpoons, the lander is now on the opposite side of C-G from Rosetta (over the horizon, so to speak). So any further decisions will have to be made tomorrow morning when Philae reestablishes contact.

Ulamet also hinted at something unexpected about Philae's surprising landing: with a cheeky smile, he noted "maybe… maybe we didn't land once, we even landed twice! Some preliminary data has indicated that the lander may have lifted off again after it landed, started to turn itself, and touched down again."

We're sure to have more news tomorrow. For now, take a moment to enjoy ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain's reassurance. "It's the right comet, don't worry. We have got a radio link, we have the power on board [the lander], and we have time. Now we just have to work."

5 Things Philae Could Teach Us About the Cosmos

What's happening with Philae's harpoons?

The ESA is reporting that while Philae has successfully soft landed on the comet, for some reason its twin harpoons—which were to anchor it to the comet's surface—have not fired.

The engineers and scientists at mission control are currently trying to figure out why this happened and how to fix it. This could mean that the Philae lander might soon tear away from the comet—but we're hoping that the lander has embedded itself deep enough onto the comet's soft surface that there's time to work out how to fix the issue. The ESA team doesn't want to simply fire the harpoons again without being sure, as the force could fling Philae off the comet (which has very weak gravity) and out into space.

The ESA is about to begin a media briefing at 2 p.m. Eastern to explain what's going on.

Update, 12:10 p.m. Eastern: This just in. More details to come:

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I’m on the surface but my harpoons did not fire. My team is hard at work now trying to determine why. #CometLanding — Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November 12, 2014

It's official: We've landed on a comet!

Just after 11 a.m. Eastern time, the ESA has announced that Rosetta's Philae lander has successfully anchored onto its target comet: 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Because the comet is more than 300 million miles from Earth, it took the scientists nearly 30 minutes to get confirmation of Philae's success. The stunning comet landing is a first for humanity, and the culmination of a 10-year journey for the Rosetta mission.

The washing-machine sized Philae lander will now continue with its nine onboard science experiments. First thing first: Minutes after landing, Philae will beam back a panorama image.

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MT @esaoperations: Harpoons confirmed fired & reeled in. Flywheeel now be switched off. @Philae2014 is on the surface of #67P #CometLanding — ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) November 12, 2014

Up-Close Shots of Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko

What is Rosetta?

Rosetta is a comet-bound space probe launched by the ESA (the European Union's counterpart to NASA) ten years ago, in March 2004. Over the past few years it's been chasing down its target comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G for short). On Wednesday morning, at 4:05 am Eastern, Philae detached from Rosetta to begin its gravity-driven descent towards the comet.

You can watch the action live via streaming video below. And, you can follow along with the Philae Lander and the Rosetta probe on the crafts' Twitter accounts.

What has it been up to?

Rosetta is about to make history. The spacecraft has snuggled up close to C-G and beamed back data so that ESA scientists could pick the perfect landing spot. Now Rosetta (or more precisely, its Philae lander) is about to become the first manmade object to touch down on a comet.

Keep in mind that humans have made impact with comets before. In 2005, for example, NASA violently slammed into a different comet with the Deep Impact probe, hoping the resulting debris would teach them something new about what comets are made of. Rosetta promises to be a much gentler affair—despite the fact that I'm about to use the word 'harpoon'.

Rosetta's Philae lander is going to harpoon the comet to stay attached to C-G. That's because the gravity is too weak for the spacecraft to stay connected otherwise. Once Philae latches on, it will send back all kinds of data to scientists. The lander is brimming with the antennae and equipment (including a drill and onboard oven) for nine separate experiments.

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RELATED: Up-close photos of the comet Rosetta is chasing.

When and how will this comet landing go?

The washing-machine sized Philae lander is currently making its way from Rosetta toward C-G at about walking speed, over a grueling, 7-hour process.

The Philae lander has already separated from Rosetta (it did so last night, at about 3:30 a.m. Eastern) and should make contact with C-G at around 10:30 am Eastern Time. Because the comet is so far away, though, here on Earth we'll receive confirmation of the successful landing around 30 minutes after the fact. So expect news at 11:00 Eastern this morning.

Once Philae reaches the comet, it's going to shoot out two harpoons into C-G to tether itself down to begin its science experiments, including drilling into the comet. It'll also continue a litany of measurements and other experiments. The lander has already been snapping photos and taking gas and magnetic field measurements ever since it separated with Rosetta.

Why has this mission taken 10 years?

Two words: gravity boosts.

Following its launch, Rosetta needed to make a few slingshot flybys past Earth in 2005, 2007, and 2009 to pick up enough speed to rendezvous with a comet.

http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/avZGG4q_460sa_v1.gif

What do we expect to learn?

There's no telling how much information scientists will be able to squeeze out of C-G. As we reported this summer, even getting Rosetta close enough to snap photos has radically altered our understanding of comets.

The best new info is yet to come. Rosetta's data could help us to answer the big questions about our home planet using secrets locked up inside comets, the icy-wanders of the night's sky. How and where are comets made? How did they get their water? Did they bring water—or life—to Earth?

Update, 9:20 a.m. Eastern: The Philae lander's first image after separating from Rosetta.

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It’s me… landing on a comet & feeling good! MT @ESA_Rosetta: I see you too! #CometLanding pic.twitter.com/DjU0J1Ey4H — Philae Lander (@Philae2014) November 12, 2014

Any good or bad news so far?

Only one slight issue has come up that might prove fatal during the comet landing. The ESA scientists behind Rosetta have announced that a single thruster, located on top of the Philae lander, isn't working.

This thruster isn't entirely necessary for guiding the lander towards C-G and successfully harpooning the comet. But it was supposed to provide two important functions. First, the thruster was designed to minimize any bounce-back Philae might encounter when first smacking down on the low-gravity comet. Second, the thruster was going to counteract the recoil Philae will feel when it fires down those awesome dual harpoons.

Because thruster is not a "mission critical" piece of equipment, this shouldn't be a deal-breaker, and the ESA has just had over 7 hours with some of the world's smartest scientists (plus 10 years of preparing for all possible issues) to work around the faulty thruster. If anyone could make this a successful landing, it's the women and men already in mission control.

How big is comet C-G?

This big:

Ce grand:

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