The European Space Agency’s Philae probe is working and sending signals to Earth after bouncing twice off a comet upon which it now rests.

A photo showing the surface of the Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet and one of Philae’s three feet was posted on Paris-based ESA’s twitter feed. Scientists are still trying to determine exactly where the probe is after its harpoon anchors failed to fire, ESA’s head of mission operations, Paolo Ferri said today.

“The contact today was very stable and very good,” Ferri said from ESA’s control center in Darmstadt, Germany. “Philae is working very well. It is stable on the surface. What we don’t know yet is where it is.”

The European mission was already the first to place a spacecraft, called Rosetta, in orbit around a comet. After three months of orbiting, it dispatched Philae yesterday on a seven-hour descent to land on the comet.

Researchers hope that by studying the icy mass they can uncover clues about the early formation of the Earth because comets may have seeded the planet with the organic molecules needed for life.

Ferri said engineers believe Philae flew for a couple of hours after its first bounce then touched down again, bouncing for a few minutes before finally coming to rest. While it initially touched down close to the center of its predicted landing area, it may now “be a significant distance from the original site,” he said.

David Fuller's view

Philae may be trying to escape after being cramped in the Rosetta space craft for a decade.

Seriously, I find this unbelievably exciting.  What an amazing achievement.  It is also a welcome distraction from some of our mundane earthly concerns.