European robot probe Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from its mothership.
The landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was confirmed at about 1605 GMT.
There were cheers and hugs at the control room in Darmstadt, Germany, after the signal was confirmed.
It was designed to shine a light on some of the mysteries of these icy relics from the formation of the Solar System.
The landing caps a 6.4 billion-kilometre journey that was begun a decade ago.
“Philae is talking to us… we are on the comet” – Stephan Ulamec, the mission’s lander chief
“This is a big step for human civilisation,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, the director-general of the European Space Agency (Esa).
Shortly after the touchdown was confirmed, Stephan Ulamec, the mission’s lander chief, said: “Philae is talking to us… we are on the comet.”
Prof Monica Grady of the Open University, who has worked on the project from its earliest days, was at mission control in Darmstadt and was jumping for joy when the news came through.
She told BBC News: “I can’t believe it, it’s fantastic, we’ve landed – we’ve waited so long for this.”
The lander sank about 4cm into the surface, but scientists said the harpoons designed to fasten the spacecraft to the 2.5-mile-wide ball of ice and dust did not fire as intended.
They will now decide whether to re-fire the anchors.
Earlier, a thruster system designed to push the robot down into the surface of the comet also failed.
Part of the difficulty is the very low gravity on the 4km-wide ice mountain.
Philae needs to be wary of simply bouncing back into space.
The nature and strength of the surface materials on the surface are unknown.
Philae could have alighted upon terrain whose constitution is anything between rock hard and puff-powder soft.
In addition, controllers are getting intermittent drop-out in the signal from the lander.
Paolo Ferri, head of operations at Esa, told BBC News: “We need to stabilise this situation over the next three hours.”
Analysis by Science editor David Shukman
Landing on the small strange world of a comet ranks as one of the greatest achievements in space exploration. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would obviously take pride of place.
People mightdebate the relative prowess of robotic rovers driving on Mars or the Voyager spacecraft edging out of the solar system. But touching down on a primordial lump of rock and ice that dates from the earliest days of the Solar System – and which is hurtling through space at 34,000 mph – is a genuine triumph by any standards.
Dreaming up the plan 25 years ago, enduring 10 years of journeying through space, handling the tension of edging close to the comet more than 300 million miles away – all these are remarkable in their own right.
Rosetta’s orbits around the comet are generating unexpected insights. But landing will help achieve a dream of establishing invaluable ground truth about a body that previous generations could only gawp at in wonder or terror.
If all continues to proceed well, Philae should take pictures of the comet’s landscape and to analyse its chemical composition.
They are hoping its surface materials will hold fresh insights into the origins of our Solar System more than 4.5 billion years ago.
One theory holds that comets were responsible for delivering water to the planets. Another idea is that they could have “seeded” the Earth with the chemistry needed to help kick-start life.
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