Confirmation received of the first ever comet landing
Successful touchdown of the landing robot Philae marks climax of 10 year, 6.4 billion km journey
Esa confirms the harpoons designed to attach Philae to the comet did not fire, but its smaller screws appear to have dug into the surface
Philae was released at 08:35 GMT and took seven hours to reach comet 67P
Pictures have been received of the descent in progress - more are now eagerly awaited from the comet surface
Live video from the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany
Klim Ivanovych Churyumov, one of the discoverers of 67P says: "Astronomy is the most important science for civilisation."
Co-discoverer Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko said she likes the comet "very much" now that she can see it up close.
"It reminds me of a boot," she said.
This was the moment the long-awaited first image from Philae's descent was presented to journalists in Darmstadt.
It was greeted with excited applause. More to come!
Picture comes from the BBC Sky at Night team: @BBCStargazing, external
tweets:, external Flight director Accomazzo: We're receiving good signals from both spacecraft. @Philae2014 trajectory looks good #cometlandingESA Operations @esaoperations
Now it's a waiting game. In less than an hour we're expecting the Philae landing, but remember this is space time. The comet is so far away that it will take 28 minutes for the signal to reach us.
Some good news though: the Esa team says the lander is on the right track, based on remote measurements.
tweets:, external Yup. We're soft landing on a comet today. Normally my "We" means @NASA. But in this case it's @esa, the European Space Agency
tweets:, external Nice one! I've never seen you from this angle before, @ESA_Rosetta! #CometLanding
John Iles: Fantastic. Full of admiration for the team - the second giant leap for mankind is about to be taken. A second step on our journey to the stars!
tweets, external: The first CIVA image is raw (not processed), and shows blurring from the rotation of the @Philae2014 lander #CometLanding
The first image taken by Philae after separation - looking back to the Rosetta probe:
Image source, ESA"We are trying to do what nobody else has done before," says Esa director general Jean-Jacques Dordain
The next broadcast from ESA TV is now in progress - watch using the "live coverage" tab above.
While we're waiting for the ESA TV stream to return...
Ever wondered why Rosetta Mission's various bits have Egyptian names: Philae, Agilkia, Ptolemy, Osiris?
Open University's Dr Jessica Hughes writes in The Conversation, external: Using hieroglyphs to frame the mission presents space as an entity that can - and eventually will - be deciphered. And while most of us have trouble grasping the colossal distances involved in space travel (Rosetta has travelled a cumulative distance of over 6.4 billion km), the names of ancient places, pharaohs and gods can help us to mentally reach the physical remoteness of celestial bodies.
Other symbolic resonances include the Ptolemaic system of astronomy and the infamous conspiracy theories about the alien origins of the pyramids.
A superimposed Cheops pyramid gives a sense of scale to the terrain on Comet 67P
Martin Bradley: This is fantastic, takes me back to staying up all night watching the Apollo 11 landing. I can't believe how exciting this whole thing is. I am in awe of these scientists.
tweets:, external A thistledown the size of a washing machine is falling to a gentle crash-landing on a comet. My finger are crossed.
We're hoping for some new pictures soon, please don't keep us hanging Esa!
tweets, external: MUPUS anchor temperature gone up about 10°C since separation #CometLanding
This is a very big day for many UK engineers, who designed and built the Rosetta spacecraft. We should be very proud of the achievements of the UK in this remarkable mission.
My boss is beginning to get very excited - he was the lead Electrical Engineer on Rosetta. All students out there - you can do this sort of work here in the UK and Europe - just imagine, it could be you watching a mission like this in a few years' time knowing that you were responsible for part of it!
Eamon: I'm astounded at the ambition - fair play to all who have been involved... just wish I wasn't stuck in work for the biggest astronautical event of my lifetime!
tweets, external: ESA TV webcast will resume shortly, at 14:00 GMT / 15:00 CET #CometLanding
Head of the European Space Operations Centre, former astronaut Thomas Reiter, said the cost of the billion-dollar mission was a small price to pay for such an important undertaking.
"It's to find answers to very fundamental questions about the history of our own planet, how it evolved.
"The overall costs were in the order of 1.4 billion euros. If you divide it by the 20 years that the development and the mission has cost, it's a matter of cents per European citizen per year... contributing to this new knowledge that we get about the evolution of our own planet and the fundamental question: if life really emerged on Earth, or if it might have been brought to Earth by such comets many billions of years in the past.
"And I think this is really worth it."