A European space probe will attempt its final mission tonight, descending on a comet with little chance of surviving the impact.

The Rosetta space probe was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency to study a comet about 800 million kilometres from Earth.

The ESA announced the probe was expected to make contact with the comet about 11:20 GMT (7:20pm AWST).

Rosetta’s 12 year adventure comes to a close with one final mission to attempt the first probe landing on the nucleus of a comet.

A live stream of the landing is available here.