No big deal, just landing on a comet

We landed a robot on a comet earlier today.  Using harpoons.

XKCD covered it, and an archive of the slides can be found here. (first few are uninteresting, but keep clicking & it gets good).

There's also a video series for kids about the mission.

The European Space Agency robots are tweeting about it.

Well done my friend! RT @Philae2014: Touchdown! My new address: 67P! #CometLanding
— ESA Rosetta Mission (@ESA_Rosetta) November 12, 2014

Approaching the comet, we've learned that it both stinks and sings.

Welcome to the future.

We just did a decade of math to successfully harpoon a space rock moving at 40,000mph with a robot to learn more about where we came from.
— Kyle Hill (@Sci_Phile) November 12, 2014

I am never tired of science landing things on comets, though. This is the future I signed up for.
— Kari Sperring (@KariSperring) November 12, 2014

This is ridiculously awesome.  10 years ago we planned a mission to land a robot on an asteroid using harpoons.  And it worked.  I'm going to revel in that for a little while.

A personal note - I haven't yet seen pictures of the ESA Operations center.  I bet they're pretty excited right now, though.  Here are scientists from India celebrating getting their space probe into orbit around Mars. A representative image:

This image is fantastic, and a good reminder for me that scientists and space programs are more colorful and include more women than they do in my head.  Landing a robot on an asteroid is the future I signed up for.  Women in saris flying a robot around Mars wasn't, but is even more awesome!