After 12 years in space the Rosetta Space probe crashed on a distant comet. Its job was to put a spacecraft on the comet to gather information, behavior and chemical composition.

Laurence O’Rourke said “sleep well Rosetta. You leave a legacy for generations to come.”

The ESA or the European Space Agency who led the mission association, which included NASA decided that the best way to end the mission was by setting the orbiter on Comet 67P/Churyumov.

O’Rourke said to CNN that Rosetta was too far away from its solar panels for the heaters and computers to be effective.  

Originally the spacecraft was not supposed to land on the comet, however it made a controlled landing and scientists guessed that it was possible that it gathered more pictures and data on its way down.

Scientists believe that the pieces that were clumped together were formed when the solar system was young.

The spacecraft discovered 16 organic compounds which included 4 that never been detected on comets before.

These compounds were important because those chemicals included building blocks for the ingredients of life.

A theory that some believe is comets may have provided Earth with the necessary components for life to start.

Brown who lectures at Nottingham Trent which is located in the UK said to CNN

“The presence of complex molecules, some of which were previously unknown to exist of comets, still allow comets to be a possible source of introducing complex molecules and enable the formation of life on Earth.”

ESA said that the final cost for the mission costed about 1.57 billion dollars from the beginning of the project which started in 1996.

The route took 10 years to complete and it was so far away from solar power that the craft had to be in hibernation for part of the mission.