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A tenuous path to a comet: the Rosetta mission in photos

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A "selfie" from Rosetta
A "selfie" from Rosetta
ESA

Rosetta left earth in 2004, whipped around it three times to gain speed, and caught up to a comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (both seen above, in a photo taken by Rosetta's lander). On Nov. 12, 2014, the spacecraft dropped a lander onto the comet's surface. Here's the decade-long journey in photographs.

Rosetta at Europe's spaceport

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Rosetta at Europe's spaceport
September 2002: Rosetta's lander is manipulated at Europe's spaceport