A decade ago, scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) had just wrapped up the yearslong process of building a comet-chasing spacecraft named after the Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The scientists hoped the Rosetta mission would similarly reveal new clues about how our pocket of the universe assembled itself roughly 4.5 billion years ago.
To do so, the mission's goal was to study an otherwise-unremarkable comet called Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a 2.5-mile-wide (4 kilometers) frozen rock left over from the formation of the solar system. Following a decade-long journey, Rosetta arrived at its target in August 2014.
