Earlier this week the Philae probe bounced down to the comet 67P and began sampling its makeup. Unfortunately, it now looks like the probe has gone to sleep after its batteries ran out. While the Philae mission is amazing on its own, the journey of its mothership Rosetta is even more astonishing (as shown by the animation below).

This animation tracks Rosetta’s journey through the Solar System, using gravity slingshots from Earth and Mars to reach its final destination: Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Rosetta made three flybys of Earth, on 4 March 2005, 13 November 2007 and 13 November 2009, and one of Mars, on 25 February 2007. Rosetta has also visited two asteroids, taking extensive close-up images of 2867 Steins on 5 September 2008 and 21 Lutetia on 10 July 2010. Once the spacecraft is woken up from deep space hibernation on 20 January 2014, it will head for rendezvous with the comet in May.

(h/t boingboing)