As the first probe ever to be stationed on a comet hibernates, attention is turning to the Rosetta orbiter, which is still buzzing around the space snowball.
The Philae lander's batteries lasted about 60 hours before running out. Rosetta is expected to observe comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for more than a year and perhaps even into 2016, said Kathrin Altwegg, an experimental physicist from the University of Bern who is working on orbiter experiments.
"Of course, the lander is exciting," she said in an interview. "The science from the orbiter is probably more extensive and ultimately more valuable, because you have more time and better instruments."