An unmanned probe touched down on a comet for the first time on Wednesday, as the European Space Agency’s Philae lander successfully negotiated a perilous seven-hour descent from its Rosetta mother ship on to the irregular nucleus of Comet 67P.

Scientists at ESA mission headquarters erupted in applause shortly after 4pm GMT as a radio signal from Philae 511m km away confirmed that the washing-machine-sized probe had reached the surface.

“The lander is talking to us,” said an emotional Stephan Ulamec, Philae manager, after the first signal came through. “We are extremely relieved to be safely on the surface of the comet, especially given the extra challenge of the comet’s unusual shape and unexpectedly hazardous surface,” he added. “In the next hours we’ll learn exactly where and how we’ve landed, and we’ll start getting as much science as we can from the surface of this fascinating world.”