New analysis suggests the history-making Philae lander may have clipped the rim of a crater during its comet landing last month, sending the washing machine-sized craft into a tumble.

Whether or not Philae was tipped into a spin, an initial bounce did send the lander off course -- ultimately landing successfully, but not in the proper location. Instead of coming to rest in the planned location, the lander ended up in the bottom of a crater.

By looking at data collected and transmitted back to its mothership by the lander's Rosetta Lander Magnetometer and Plasma Monitor (ROMAP), scientists at the European Space Agency have been able to reconstruct the trajectory of Philae's descent. In doing so, they have to hone in on exactly what went askew -- and get a better idea of where exactly the lander is now.

"It was not a touchdown like the first one, because there was no signature of a vertical deceleration due to a slight dipping of our magnetometer boom as measured during the first and also the final touchdown," Hans-Ulrich Auster, co-lead investigator on the Philae mission, explained.

"We think that Philae probably touched a surface with one leg only -- perhaps grazing a crater rim -- and after that the lander was tumbling," Auster continued. "We did not see a simple rotation about the lander's z-axis anymore, it was a much more complex motion with a strong signal in the magnetic field measurement."

If Philae was sent into a dizzying spin, its historic landing may have been even more miraculous than previous thought -- given that it eventually landed upright. As more information on the landing is gathered, it's becoming clearer just how lucky things turned out.

Philae's landing plans were also hampered by the malfunctioning of its harpoons, anchors meant to pierce the comet's surface and secure the craft to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Additionally, the lander's top thruster -- intended to exert a downward force as Philae secured itself to the comet -- also failed to engage.

According to Rosetta mission scientist Matt Taylor (as recounted by Forbes contributor Bruce Dorminey), "the combination of an impenetrable subsurface and a malfunctioning lander thruster might not have been enough to stymie the recoiling force from the two harpoons."

For now, Philae is in hibernation, trapped in the shadow of a crater wall -- its batteries zapped and its solar panels unable to receive enough sunlight to recharge. But scientists at the Philae and Rosetta headquarters in Germany and France still have plenty of information (beamed back during Philae's time in action) to analyze.