On its blog, ESA (European Space Agency) said Philae had contacted Earth, via Rosetta, for 85 seconds on Saturday in the first contact since going into hibernation in November.

"Philae is doing very well. It has an operating temperature of -35C and has 24 watts available," said Philae project manager Stephan Ulamec.

Scientists say they now waiting for the next contact.

ESA scientist Mark McCaughrean told the BBC: "It's been a long seven months, and to be quite honest we weren't sure it would happen - there are a lot of very happy people around Europe at the moment."

Philae was carrying large amounts of data that scientists hoped to download once they made contact again, he said.

"I think we're optimistic now that it's awake that we'll have several months of scientific data to pore over," he added....

While the Rosetta and Philae teams are busy planning the next activities for the spacecraft and lander, CometWatch continues with a new view of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko captured on 7 June 2015, several days before Philae's wake-up call was received. This single frame NAVCAM image, taken at a distance of 203 km from the comet, has a resolution of 17.3 m/pixel and measures 17.8 km across. ...continues

Comet lander Philae renews contact

The adventure continues: ESA today confirmed that its Rosetta mission will be extended until the end of September 2016, at which point the spacecraft will most likely be landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ...

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In the approach to perihelion over the past few weeks, Rosetta has been witnessing growing activity from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, with one dramatic outburst event proving so powerful that it even pushed away the incoming solar wind.

The comet reaches perihelion on Thursday, the moment in its 6.5-year orbit when it is closest to the Sun. In recent months, the increasing solar energy has been warming the comet’s frozen ices, turning them to gas, which pours out into space, dragging dust along with it.

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Ground control bids farewell to Philae comet lander

Ground controllers say it is time to give up hope of ever hearing again from the comet lander Philae.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta mission dropped the robot onto Comet 67P in November 2014.

But after a troubled landing and 60 hours of operation, there has largely been radio silence from Philae.

The German Aerospace Center (DLR), which led the consortium behind Philae, said the lander is probably now covered in dust and too cold to function
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