ESA publishes first ever pics of Philae Lander's 'bouncy' touchdown

ESA/ROSETTA/PHILAE/CIVA

Washington: European Space Agency has published the first ever pics of Philae Lander 's probe moments after its initial touchdown.

The solar-powered Philae lander bounced a mile back into space following its first contact with comet 67P and successfully landed a few minutes later, over half a mile away from its intended spot.

The photographs were unveiled on the Esa's Rosetta Blog, showing a few pale pixels - thought to be Philae - accompanied by a dark patch, which experts conclude is its shadow and the researchers have spent hours analysing and reviewing the footage before their conclusion was made public.

Philae has been returning pictures and other data to earth via the Rosetta satellite, but until now scientists have not had access to images of the probe itself after landing.

The difficult landing damaged the craft and its current location means the battery that powers it may not be able to recharge and its currently in stand-by mode after running out of power but before that happened engineers attempted to maximise the possibility of recharging its power supply by sending a command to reposition the lander.

This involved raising Philae by 4cm and rotating its main housing by 35 percent in order to ensure the largest solar panel catches the most light.