Comets have been studied from a long time and are believed to preserve pristine materials, so they are fundamental to understand the origin of the solar system and life. Starting in the early 1990s, ESA decided to have a more risky and fantastic mission to a comet. As Planetary Cornerstone mission of the ESA Horizon 2000 program, the Rosetta mission was selected with the aim of realizing two asteroid fly-bys, a rendezvous with a comet to deliver a surface science package and to hover around the comet from 4 AU inbound up to perihelion and outbound back to 3.7 AU. The mission was successfully launched on March 2, 2004 with Ariane V that started its 10-year journey toward comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. After several planetary gravity assists, Rosetta flew by two asteroids—on September 5, 2008 (Steins) and on July 10, 2010 (Lutetia), respectively, and performed the comet orbit insertion maneuver on August 6, 2014. The onboard instruments characterized the nucleus orbiting the comet at altitudes down to few kilometers. On November 12, 2014, the lander Philae was delivered realizing the first landing ever on a comet surface. Although the exploration of the comet was planned up to the end of 2015, the mission duration was extended for nine more months than the nominal one, to follow the comet on its outbound orbit. To terminate the mission, following a series of very low orbits, a controlled impact of Rosetta spacecraft with the comet was realized on September 30, 2016. The scientific objectives of the mission have been largely achieved. The challenging mission provided the science community with an enormous quantity of data of extraordinary scientific value. In this paper, a detailed description of the mission and the highlights of the obtained scientific results on the exploration of an extraordinary world are presented. The paper also includes lessons learned and directions for the future.

中文翻译：

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罗塞塔任务在太阳系起源方面的主要成就

长期以来，人们一直在研究彗星，人们认为彗星可以保存原始材料，因此它们是了解太阳系和生命起源的基础。从 1990 年代初开始，欧空局决定对彗星进行一项更具风险和更奇妙的任务。作为欧空局地平线 2000 计划的行星基石任务，选择罗塞塔任务的目的是实现两颗小行星飞越，与彗星会合以提供表面科学包，并在彗星周围盘旋从 4 天文单位到近日点和出站距离回到 3.7 AU。该任务于 2004 年 3 月 2 日成功发射，阿丽亚娜五号开始了其 10 年的 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko 彗星之旅。经过几次行星引力辅助后，罗塞塔号分别在 2008 年 9 月 5 日 (Steins) 和 2010 年 7 月 10 日 (Lutetia) 飞过两颗小行星，并于 2014 年 8 月 6 日执行了彗星轨道插入操作。机载仪器表征了在低至几公里的高度绕彗星运行的原子核。2014 年 11 月 12 日，着陆器菲莱交付，实现了有史以来第一次在彗星表面着陆。虽然对彗星的探索计划到 2015 年底，但任务持续时间比名义上延长了 9 个月，以跟踪彗星的出境轨道。为了终止任务，在一系列非常低的轨道之后，罗塞塔航天器与彗星的受控撞击于 2016 年 9 月 30 日实现。任务的科学目标已基本实现。具有挑战性的任务为科学界提供了大量具有非凡科学价值的数据。在本文中，介绍了任务的详细描述以及在探索非凡世界方面取得的科学成果的亮点。该文件还包括吸取的经验教训和未来的方向。