The European Space Agency announces spot where the Rosetta probe will land on comet

Harold Maass, The Week US's avatar
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The European Space Agency announces spot where the Rosetta probe will land on comet
(Image credit: The European Space Agency)

The European Space Agency on Monday morning announced the spot where the Philae lander from its Rosetta spacecraft will put down on the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, 250 million miles from Earth. Picked from a list of five potential targets, Site J is located at the "head" of the comet and was deemed the least risky of the bunch for the Nov. 11 landing. Rosetta reached the three-mile-wide "ice mountain" after a 10-year journey. Its spider-like Philae robot will harpoon the surface and lower itself down slowly on a mission to learn more about comets. For more, take a look at the site below or head over to BBC News. --Harold Maass

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Harold Maass, The Week US
Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.