Europe's Comet Probe Philae Has Woken Up

European space agencies say the comet probe Philae has woken up seven months after scientists lost contact.
Philae was dropped on to the surface of Comet 67P by mothership, Rosetta, last November.
It worked for 60 hours before going to sleep when its solar-powered battery ran flat but the president of France's CNES space agency said the comet had sparked into life.
Jean-Yves Le Gall said: "We received new signals from (Philae) for a period of two minutes, as well as 40 seconds worth of data."

The space probe's Twitter account, run by the Lander Control Center LCC in Cologne, announced the revival, tweeting after a seven-month silence: "Hello Earth! Can you hear me?"

Then in a tweet directed at the account for its mothership, the space agency wrote: "Hello @ESA_Rosetta! I'm awake! How long have I been asleep?"
After a reply saying the rest had been seven months, the Philae account tweeted back: "Wow @ESA_Rosetta! That’s a long time… time for me to get back to work! #Lifeonacomet".

In November the Rosetta Mission had successfully landed the probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko amidst much jubilation and fist-pumping in the European Space Agency's headquarters.

The comet is 300 million miles away and ESA director general Jean-Jacques Dordain had told a delighted audience: "This is a big step for human civilisation."
But just a few days later, the agency said all systems on board the craft had shut down and the comet probe, roughly the size of a dishwasher, had entered as "possibly long silence".
"Prior to falling silent, the lander was able to transmit all science data gathered during the first science sequence," said Stephan Ulamec from the European Space Operations Centre.
"This machine performed magnificently under tough conditions, and we can be fully proud of the incredible scientific success Philae has delivered."