The European Space Agency says the comet lander Philae has woken up after seven months and sent messages back to Earth.

Last November Philae became the first spacecraft to land on a comet, named 67P, having been dropped there by its mothership Rosetta.

At the time there were celebrations for the project team, but Philae was only able to work for around sixty hours before its solar-powered batteries went flat.

It had landed in a ditch on the comet and that severely limited the amount of sunlight it needed to recharge the batteries.

Engineers now think the comet is moving towards the sun and the increasing intensity of the light reaching Philae’s batteries could be sufficient to recharge them.

The scientists are now feeling optimistic and are awaiting the next messages from Philae.