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After a seven month nap, the tiny Philae probe has woken up and made contact

Hello again, little lander.

EUROPEAN SPACE PROBE Philae woke up overnight, after nearly seven months in hibernation as it hurtled towards the Sun on the back of a comet, mission control has confirmed.

The tiny robot lab may be ready to resume science work, adding a fresh chapter to its extraordinary voyage, excited officials said.

“Hello Earth! Can you hear me?” the washing machine-sized lander tweeted under the hashtag #WakeUpPhilae.

The operations centre in Madrid “got a two-minute… successful communication” last night, mission manager Patrick Martin told AFP.

“This was sufficient to confirm that Philae is healthy and that its sub-systems are okay in terms of energy and temperature for ongoing communication with Rosetta,” he said, referring to the lander’s mothership, orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The mission seeks to unlock the long-held secrets of comets – primordial clusters of ice and dust that scientists believe may reveal how the Solar System was formed.

The 100-kilo robot lab touched down on “67P” on November 12 after an epic 10-year trek piggybacking on Rosetta.

But instead of harpooning itself onto the dusty iceball’s surface, Philae bounced several times before settling at an angle in a dark ditch.

It had enough stored battery power for about 60 hours of experiments, enabling it to send home reams of data before going into standby mode on November 15.

esa1 ESA ESA

As “67P” drew closer to the Sun, scientists hoped better light would recharge Philae’s batteries enough for it to reboot, then make contact, and ultimately carry out a new series of experiments.

After two failed bids to make contact in March and April, a new attempt was launched in May.

“We were surprised, yes, because we didn’t expect it at all last night, on a weekend — it’s really exciting,” Martin said.

An ESA statement said Philae communicated with its ground team for 85 seconds, and preliminary analysis of the data showed it must also have been awake earlier but unable to make contact.

According to Martin, the lander’s temperature was about minus 36 degrees Celsius and its energy at 24 watts — both higher than the minus 45 C and 19 watts required to operate.

“Philae is doing very well,” said Stephan Ulamec, Philae project manager with the German space agency DLR.

The lander is ready for operations.

Martin was more cautious, saying: “We have already lined up more communication windows which hopefully will see a repeat of this successful communication.

If we get a stable communications pattern we should be able within a week or so to think about operating the instruments on board the lander.

The comet and its precious cargo are 215 million km from the Sun and 305 million km from Earth, racing at a speed of 31.24 km a second, according to ESA’s website.

Rosetta and Philae have travelled an accumulated distance of 6.9 billion km.

By August 13 the comet will reach its closest point to the Sun, or perihelion, before veering off again into the deeper reaches of space.

There are still more than 8,000 data packets in Philae’s mass memory to be analysed, according to ESA.

Philae’s operators hope that the new data will allow them to pinpoint the lab’s exact location on the comet, which has so far been narrowed to an area of about 100-200 metres.

© – AFP, 2015

Read: People are getting emotional about the little comet lander finally waking up

Read: What next for the Clerys workers?

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    Mute bmul
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:08 PM

    Washington, D.C. (District of Columbia) is not in any state

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    Mute Santa Claus
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:14 PM

    It is, it’s in an awful state.

    289
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    Mute Seamus Donoghue
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:10 PM

    Question 1 is completely incorrect. Gave up there.

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    Mute John Fahey
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    Dec 31st 2015, 8:23 PM

    Agree – it’s not in any state as they didn’t want any one state having control over the federal government.

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Dec 31st 2015, 8:56 PM

    They want it to be a state now govern like the other states but those on the Hill do not want that.

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    Mute Colin Tyrrell
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:09 PM

    Gave up after Question 1. Washington DC is not in a State. It’s built on donated land from Maryland & Virginia which created District of Columbia. Unless my schooling was completely wrong

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    Mute Amy Gaffney
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:10 PM

    I thought Washington DC wasn’t part of any state? Didn’t Maryland just donate land to the district? I could be wrong…

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:57 PM

    Maryland and Virginia. The far side of the Potomac was later ceded back to Virginia.

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    Mute Fintan C Hennessy
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:25 PM

    In fairness “how many times can Ireland fit into Russia?” Is a stupid question. It’s guessing at best.

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    Mute Amy Gaffney
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    Dec 31st 2015, 1:08 PM

    In fairness druid, if you knew all 54 African countries and their flags you’ve been wasting your life. Be happy with your one!

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    Mute Niall Waters
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:11 PM

    I said Ireland for the highest population question. I was right to say Ireland too because Ireland is the right answer. If you meant Republic of Ireland you should have said ‘Republic of Ireland’.

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    Mute Aidan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:39 PM

    “The name of the State is Éire, or, in the English language, Ireland.” – Article 4

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    Mute Mark Corrigan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:41 PM

    Must try harder. Two incorrect questions although i went for ireland as its not a country. Pretty easy for a supposed hard quiz

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    Mute Ariana
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:45 PM

    It says ‘countries’ not ‘islands’, Ireland is the official name for the this country as per the Constitution.

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    Mute Matty Reese
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:24 PM

    “Republic of Ireland” is a football team. The official name of the country is written on the cover of your passport (as is the norm) and in two languages no less.

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    Mute Guybrush Threepwood
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    Dec 31st 2015, 6:03 PM

    You would be right if you said ‘Ireland’(although not for your reasoning). As per the Good Friday Agreement the population of Ireland can include anybody living in Northern Ireland that takes Irish citizenship.

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    Mute Ron Koeman
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:13 PM

    District of Columbia isn’t a state. The city of Washington has no senator, its why they have “taxation without representation” on their car licence plates. Poor form to get such an easy question wrong in a quiz you created.

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    Mute Tony Stack
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:28 PM

    They have no congressman

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    Mute RossMcEntegart
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:34 PM

    They have Congressmen/women, but no Senators.

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    Mute Dan Morgan
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:33 PM

    The have one honorary congressperson, who has no voting rights in Congress, yet the cities budget is decided upon by the House.

    /Useless knowledge acquired from too much time watching West Wing

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    Mute Andrea Rock Massey
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    Dec 31st 2015, 12:52 AM

    I’m in the middle of watching it again! It just never gets old…

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    Mute Business Cat
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:26 PM

    Question one is tricky cos its wrong!

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    Mute Nigel McCormack
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:04 PM

    Answer to Q5 is also wrong. It is the Gall-Peters Projection, commonly known as the Peters projection.
    Sorry for being pedantic
    Any hardcore West Wing fan knows it well

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    Mute Trea Lynch
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:04 PM

    Brilliant episode!

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    Mute Andrea Rock Massey
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    Dec 31st 2015, 12:53 AM

    Poor CJ couldn’t cope..

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    Mute Not Neo, not Trinity
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:27 PM

    There are 50 states in the USA, DC is not in any of them. DC does not a Senator or a Congressman, it is governed by the House of Representatives, and has a Mayor. I

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    Mute Rasputin
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:33 PM

    Washington DC is a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any U.S. state.

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    Mute Leadóg Hackett
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:29 PM

    Ireland has 6.4 million people. Norway is next with just over 5 million.

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    Mute Matty Reese
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:27 PM

    It was 4,588,252 at the last census, unlikely to have grown by 2 million since then.

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    Mute Leadóg Hackett
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:31 PM

    It’s careless to overlook nearly 2 million people.

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    Mute catkins407
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:12 PM

    Well I’m shite at geography…..

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    Mute Colin Tyrrell
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:14 PM

    So is the author, judging by the first question

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    Mute Santa Claus
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:16 PM

    HO HO HO! ;D

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    Mute Sean Costello
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:17 PM

    Questions 1 & 5 are incorrect. It’s called the Peters projection (or galls Peter to be very accurate). And while it does show the correct area of the countries of the world, it doesn’t show the correct shape.

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    Mute Thomas O' Donnell
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:56 PM

    Nearest city to Dublin is Liverpool. Now, if the question was which of THESE cities is closest …

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    Mute John O Neill
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:36 PM

    Washington DC, I thought that meant de capital,!!!

    22
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    Mute Patrick Agnew
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:15 PM

    I got the Los Angeles one only. That, only because the world map was on view :-(

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    Mute Aoife Pauline Delaney
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:39 PM

    This should be called the hardest ever primary school geography quiz. Geography is a lot more than knowing capital cities and population numbers!

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    Mute billy dunne
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    Dec 31st 2015, 12:54 AM

    10/10 on fourth try ;)

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    Mute Tony Stack
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    Dec 30th 2015, 9:28 PM

    7/10. Some hard questions there

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    Mute funkybuscuits
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:27 PM

    Load of shite

    12
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    Mute Arthur Pewty
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    Dec 30th 2015, 10:40 PM

    started well…..

    7
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    Mute Trea Lynch
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    Dec 30th 2015, 11:05 PM

    8/10…smugness

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    Mute Michael Sands
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    Dec 31st 2015, 8:54 PM

    You scored 4 out of 10!
    What are ewe doing!?
    You lost?

    DC is a clue to the first one, District of Columbia?

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