Rosetta mission probe will be told to crank up a flywheel in a bid to shake dust off its solar panels so it can continue work on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Scientists have begun work on a last-chance manoeuvre to contact the long-silent Philae probe, dropped more than a year ago onto the…

Robot probe Rosetta could provide dramatic images as 67P reaches perihelion, its orbital highpoint – and threatens to break up. European scientists are preparing to celebrate an unusual midsummer festival – on a comet that is currently 165 million kilometres from Earth. The comet, 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, is set to reach the…