Rosetta

Rosetta achieved a historic first by orbiting Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and landing the Philae probe on its surface, unlocking direct data on the solar system's primitive building blocks. The mission analyzed over 100,000 cometary particles, detecting organic molecules like glycine, an amino acid fundamental to life. Its data showed comets delivered Earth's water in a ratio matching our oceans with 3% isotopic precision, challenging earlier theories about water origins.