Comet lander Philae may be sitting on an object teeming with alien microbial life, according to two leading astronomers.

The European Space Agency received no signals from the Philae lander during a scheduled effort to establish communication today.

Scientists have re-established communication with the Philae space probe, which has made history by landing on a comet.

A European spacecraft that made history by touching down on a comet may have failed to anchor itself firmly to the object’s icy surface, scientists have revealed.

A team of scientists identified yesterday the point on the surface of a comet — known as Site J — where they aim to land a probe in what would be a historic breakthrough for their decade-long project.

Scientists have calculated that the comet at the centre of the Rosetta mission weighs 10 trillion kilograms.

After a 6.4bn kilometres journey, European spacecraft Rosetta became the first ever to catch up with a comet, a landmark stage in a decade-long space mission that scientists hope will help unlock some of the secrets of the solar system.

In a darkening world, depressingly beset by violence, it was heartening yesterday to celebrate two spectacular events which reflect the best of everything Irish — the 141st Dublin Horse Show and the astonishingly successful rendezvous between a comet and Rosetta, a European built space probe following its ten year, 6.4bn-kilometre journey around the solar system.

Comet-chasing space probe Rosetta has reached its destination after a journey lasting more than a decade.

A European spacecraft is closing in on an icy comet more than 250 million miles (402 million km) away at the end of an epic 10-year journey across the Solar System.

A European spacecraft is due to rendezvous with an icy comet today after an epic 10-year journey across the Solar System.

A European spacecraft is due to rendezvous with an icy comet tomorrow after an epic 10-year journey across the Solar System.

Irish schoolchildren made their own mini comets yesterday as the world waited for a comet-chasing probe to wake up and phone home from some 800m kilometres away.

A comet-chasing space probe that has been in hibernation for almost three years has woken up this evening and sent its first signal back to Earth.

A spacecraft is on course to make history by landing the first probe on a comet, but first it must end its two-year hibernation. Rosetta, operated by the European Space Agency, has been dormant since Jul 2011 and its alarm clock is set for 10am GMT on Jan 20.

EGYPTIANS and Irish stood together in sorrow on the quays at Union Hall in West Cork yesterday as the bodies of two missing men were brought ashore.

AS closure came for some of those waiting on the quays for five long days, the anguish went on for others.

THE only surviving fisherman from a trawler sunk off the south-west coast believes the five other crewmen’s bodies are still within the submerged vessel.

Richard Collins on the translator whose persistence solved a mystery.

Europe’s pioneering mission to chase down a comet and land a probe on its surface blasted off today, beginning a perilous 12-year trek through the solar system.

It was a cruel winter’s day as Northern Ireland’s voters went to the polls to elect their next Assembly.