Comet lander named for Rosetta Stone site

PARIS, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Europe's robotic probe, scheduled to land on a comet in 10 years, has been named "Philae" by a 15-year-old girl, BBC News Online reported.

The lander is named for an island in the Nile where the Rosetta Stone was found. The lander's carrier, scheduled to launch Feb. 26 from French Guiana, is named Rosetta for the stone that first helped archaeologists translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

If all goes well, the probe will land in 2014 on the comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko to return data on materials believed to date to the formation of the Solar System more than 4 billion years ago.

The teenager who suggested the probe's name, Serena Olga Vismara of Italy, will attend the launch.