彗星登陆器菲莱停在峭壁阴影 恐影响充电

Scientists with the European Space Agency have put out first-ever image taken from the surface of a comet.

The images have come from the ESA's lander, which this week managed to land on a comet for the first time.

However, the lander appears to have fallen in the shadow of a cliff, posing a potential problem for its solar panels.

Jean-Pierre Bibring is the lead scientist for the lander.

"You see we are just in the shadow of a cliff and that, as you will understand, is part of the problem, in which we are... Of course we wanted to land independently of where we would like to be, but of course to be the more illuminated would be the real best and we are not really well illuminated. So you see a cliff here that really is hardly lighted. It also gives you, whether you're not necessarily happy with that, a very good quality of the imaging because we go to something almost black, which we can release some details after saturation."

The photo released by the ESA shows a rocky terrain, with one of the lander's three feet in the corner of the frame.

European scientists say they believe the lander's instruments are still working properly.

They plan to spend the next day or two collecting as much data as possible before deciding whether to adjust the lander's position.

The lander scored an historic first on Wednesday, touching down on the comet after a decade-long, 4 billion-mile journey aboard its mother ship, Rosetta.

The mission is meant to study the comet in the hope it can shed more light on the origins of our solar system.