Rosetta
Rosetta was a European mission that orbited comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from 2014 to 2016 and landed a probe on it.
Rosetta was a European Space Agency mission launched in March 2004 and named after the Rosetta Stone, which helped unlock Egyptian hieroglyphs. After a ten-year journey with gravity assists from Earth and Mars and flybys of asteroids Šteins and Lutetia, it reached comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014.
The comet's nucleus has two lobes joined by a neck, like a rubber duck, about 4 kilometres across. Rosetta orbited it for over two years as it passed closest to the Sun, watching jets, landslides and changing surfaces. In November 2014 its lander Philae touched down after bouncing. The mission ended on 30 September 2016 with a controlled descent onto the comet.
Rosetta found that the comet's water has a deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio about three times that of Earth's oceans, suggesting comets like 67P did not supply most of Earth's water. It also detected glycine, phosphorus and molecular oxygen in the comet's gas.
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