Comet probe wakes up

The European space probe Philae woke up overnight after a months-long sleep as it hurtled towards towards the Sun on the back of a comet, the French space chief said yesterday.

"We received new signals from (Philae) for a period of two minutes, as well as 40 seconds' worth of data," Jean-Yves Le Gall, president of the National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), told AFP.

"Hello Earth! Can you hear me?" the tiny robot lab tweeted under the hashtag #WakeUpPhilae.

The exploration aims at unveiling secrets of comets -- pristine bodies of ice and dust that are believed to explain how the Solar System was formed.

The 100-kilogramme (220-pound) robot lab touched down on "67P" on November 12 after a 10-year trek piggybacking on Rosetta. Comet 67 is currently 215 million kilometres from the Sun and 305 million kilometres from Earth, racing at 31.24 kilometres a second, according to ESA's website.

Rosetta and Philae have travelled an accumulated distance of 6.9 billion kilometres, it said.

By August 13 the comet will reach its closest point to the Sun, or perihelion, before veering off again into the deeper reaches of space.