Rosetta has launched comet lander [UPDATED]

The jagged surface of the comet, as imaged by Rosetta.

ESA

UPDATE: Philae has successfully separated from the Rosetta orbiter and is on its way towards the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Both Philae and Rosetta are in contact with Earth, and the landing legs on Philae are deployed.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission took roughly a decade from launch to approach its ultimate destination: the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Since then, it's entered a close orbit and has been providing spectacular images of the surface of this alien world. But later today, it's set to start its most ambitious activity yet, the launch of the Philae lander, which is intended to set up a monitoring system on the comet's surface itself. The ESA will livestream events from mission control starting at 4pm US Eastern time today (19:00 GMT).

Philae is a small, solar-powered lander that contains 10 instruments that are intended to examine the composition of the comet, both at its surface and internally. There's also a small drill that will obtain samples up to 30 cm deep at the landing site. All that comes from a power budget that averages eight Watts when the sun is shining on it.