On September 30th 2016, The European Space Agency's (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft officially ended its mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by crash landing on it. The history making mission officially came to an end at 7:19am EDT as its last images were sent back, seconds before it touched down on the comet's surface. The spacecraft had orbited comet 67/P sending back valuable science data for the past two years.
Rosetta entered orbit around comet 67/P in August of 2014. Several months later it sent down a robot lander called Philae. The lander, however, was lost when its tethering hooks failed to keep it grounded to the comet's surface and it end up in a ravine facing a rock cliff. Philae's solar panels were unable to keep the lander charged. Eventually the radio Rosetta used to stay in contact with the lander was shut down to save power.
While Rosetta orbited comet 67/P, it was able to determine that the water ice on the comet was a different "flavor" then that of the Earth. Comet 67/P's water ice has a higher ratio of deuterium to hydrogen, suggesting that it's very likely that Earth's water did not come from a crashing comet. Rosetta's CONCERT instrument discovered that the comet is composed of loose bits of rock and ice melted together.
Rosetta's biggest find was the detection of organic materials such as phosphorus. Phosphorus is important in cell walls, DNA, and the amino acid glycine. Glycine is important for the building of proteins, which are essential to the formation of life.
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