New Delhi:
Google is celebrating the historic landing of European Space Agency's probe Philae on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in a rather iconic way. (
Europe Makes Space History as Philae Probe Lands on Comet)
By replacing Google's second 'O' with an animated version of the spacecraft and showing a series of comets in the backdrop, Google through its doodle attempts to transport the viewer into space, even if it is for a short while.
The 100-kg (220-pound) lander touched down at about 1600 GMT after a seven-hour descent from spacecraft Rosetta around half a billion kilometres (300 million miles) from Earth. It also marks the completion of ESA's decade-long mission - which aims to find more about the origins of celestial bodies.
Wednesday's launch went ahead despite a few initial glitches due to which the probe had to rely mainly on its harpoons to stop it bouncing back from the comet's surface.