With the European Space Agency’s robotic lander now sitting on a comet hurtling in orbit around the sun, the 10-year trip is over and the real science of the mission has begun.

That means scientists may get valuable clues about the origins of the sun and planets, as well as Earth’s oceans and even ourselves.

“We’re looking at the big picture here,” said Andrew Westphal, a physicist and associate director of the Space Sciences Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley. “The reason why it’s so important to study comets is that they’re really the building blocks of the solar system. This is a chance to study primitive materials. It could tell us about our own origins.

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