Rosetta images show soaring 1km comet cliff

For now at least, ESA has lost contact with Philae after it bounced, rolled and ended up in a location where its solar panels could not be re-charged by the suns rays.

But the Rosetta is still orbiting Comet 67P from just a few miles away, allowing scientists unprecedented views of the celestial object.

Data already sent back to the ESA mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, indicates that ice in Comet 67P has a significantly different composition to the water in Earth's oceans. This may mean that comets were not, as some have previously thought, the origin of life on this planet.

By February, ESA hopes that the Rosetta will be able to reach just four miles from the surface. The spacecraft is scheduled to continue to accompany the comet as it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2015 August before the probe burns up.

Scientists hope that the dishwasher-sized Philae may come back to life in when the sunlight intensifies as the comet nears the Sun.

It is now believed that after the Philaes landing equipment did not function as planned on its initial touchdown, the lander may have bounced up hundreds of yard because of the comets low gravitational field. It then came to rest again after two hours back in space.

The Rosetta travelled three billion miles over 10 years to reach the comet, which is moving at 34,000mph.

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Rosetta images show soaring 1km comet cliff