Philae's hibernation could mean it lasts longer than ever planned

The Philae space probe endured temperatures of -150C (-238F) before waking up from hibernation after being missing for months.

It had been silent since landing on the comet last November, but made contact last weekend and has sent hundreds of packages of data to earth to be analysed.

Scientists from the European Space Agency said the lander managed to survive plummeting temperatures as it lay hidden in the shadows for seven months.

But now it has emerged from its slumber and conditions have improved, it may be able to send back more data than if it had landed in the spot it was meant to, scientists said.

Jean-Pierre Bibring, lead lander scientist, told a press conference in France: “We went to a temperature that was lower than -150C.

“What happened last weekend is that actually our systems survived and are in very good health, although (it) went down to that temperature -150C.”

He added: “Although we are in shadow we survived and that is really amazingly fantastic.”

He said that if the probe had landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and worked as it was meant to last November, it would have died by the end of March as temperatures warmed up.

Now it has survived, it might actually be more useful to the scientific world.

He said: “But of course there is a bonus there...normally in the configuration that we hoped to be just landed we should have been dead by the end of March because the temperature would rise to such a level that we would be dead by too high a temperature.

“Our system does not survive if the temperature goes over 40C typically, and that would have been achieved by the end of March.

“Thanks to (the fact that) we are in the shadow we have the capability now to wake up and possibly have a very long-term activity. And that is really where we are now.

“We have got still some fine-tuning to make. But essentially now we are in a position not only to wake up but to resume science to an extent that might go beyond our expectation.”