Rosetta

Satellite of the European Space Agency, launched on 2 March 2004, to send a spacecraft to the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a body 4 kilometres in diameter, which will then be 675 million kilometres from the Sun. Rosetta is scheduled to orbit the comet for six months before selecting a landing spot for the small Philae lander. Rosetta and Philae will then travel with Churyumov-Gerasimenko as it travels toward the centre of the solar system. Rosetta is expected to reach its destination in 2014.

Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone that was used to decipher ancient Egyptian writing, because the probe should ‘decipher’ the comet.