Rosetta's Philae lander 'goes to sleep' as battery runs out on comet

Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander has gone to sleep on the comet after running out of batteries.

The Philae lander sitting on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has run out of power after a successful last-ditch attempt to "nudge" it into better sunlight apparently came too late to charge its batteries and keep systems up and running, the Guardian reported.

The Twitter account of Philae mission posted, "@ESA_Rosetta I'm feeling a bit tired, did you get all my data? I might take a nap... #CometLanding".

Philae was receiving just 1.5 hours of sunlight instead of the expected 6-7 hours.

Valentina Lommatsch from DLR's lander team, said that they were unlucky, in a corner, surrounded by rocks.

Philae's primary mission was always designed to last around 60 hours on its initial battery charge but engineers covered the spacecraft in solar panels in the hope that sunlight could charge a set of secondary batteries and extend the mission for months.