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Rosetta probe will make attempts to establish a contact with the Philae lander on Thursday, said the European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA launched the spacecraft in 2004 to gain insight into Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko.

Philae was carried by Rosetta onboard to put it safely on the surface of the comet. Rosetta entered the orbit of the comet last year and sometime later dropped Philae on the comet's surface, but the lander's harpoons failed to work as intended. It was really unfortunate that the lander bounced and landed at the spot that was deprived of sunlight.

As a result, solar panels of Philae could not provide enough power to the lander to smoothly perform all operations, forcing ESA officials to put it into sleep mode.

Earlier, archaeologists found beer samples on an 1840-era shipwreck. The samples were different from modern day beer. Now, scientists have analyzed the oldest preserved samples to know how they were made. The aim of reviewing the samples was to recreate an enticing beer from the beer samples. The scientists have reported details in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry.

Scientists were able to detect the songs of the uncommon Antarctic blue whale about 750 kilometers away. It has been told that Antarctic marine scientists have been listening the world's largest creatures.

The scientists used directional sonobuoys so that they can hear the low rumbling songs to guide their ship to the whales in the icy Southern Ocean. According to Australian Antarctic Division Voyage Science Leader, Mike Double, they travelled a large distance without sighting any whales, so they staggered in order to watch more than 80 of the uncommon whales in a comparatively small area.

Professor Carlos Bustamante, a geneticist with the Stanford University School of Medicine, has developed a technique using which there are chances that the geographic origin and ethnic background of the three African-born slaves may be found whose skeletons were found in 2010.

During a construction project on the island of Saint Martin in the Caribbean, the skeletons, two men and a woman were unearthed. Due to unavailability of the written record, their geographic origin and ethnic background could not be found.

The new technique allows the extraction and analysis of DNA from even very contaminated and damaged samples. There are chances that this technique may provide researchers a way to better understand the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Main task of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover is to study the surface of the planet. The rover has found some very unusual rocks and minerals on a hill overlooking a site 'Marathon Valley'.

Opportunity Project Scientist Matt Golombek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was of the view that they drove to the edge of a plateau in order to see down in the valley. It was then that they found the rock, big and dark-grey.

"We checked one and found its composition is different from any ever measured before on Mars. So, whoa! Let's study these more before moving on", said Golombek. NASA officials affirmed that they evaluated the rocks and found them to be rich in silicon and aluminum.

Tallahassee's high school robotics team, the OctoPiRates, missed the first place at their regional FIRST robotics competition last month by 4 points, but they had undoubtedly given a spectacular performance. They ended at the second place in a nail-biting 100-104 final.

The team is now all set to participate in a competition at the Bayou Regional event in New Orleans from March 19-21.

The team successfully managed to make it to the final last month with the fastest recycling-tote-stacking robot of the 50 competing robots, including entrants from Turkey and China. The OctoPiRates' robot could not maintain its maneuvers when it rolled over a pool noodle.