Feb. 13--Hello there, beautiful!
The European Space Agency shared a new picture of Comet 67P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko this week, and it is gorgeous.
After a slew of close-up images of the comet's rugged surface, it's nice to see the whole 2.5-mile-long nucleus, and its amazing gas and dust jets in their entirety.
The picture was taken Feb. 6 with the Rosetta's NAVCAM, when the orbiter was about 100 miles from the comet.
The exposure lasted for six seconds, but scientists at the ESA made some adjustments to the image so that the jets of material shooting off the comet's neck are more visible.
The neck of the comet has consistently been the most active part of the icy object so far, scientists reported in a series of papers published in January.
They also reported that dust and gas seemed to be shooting out of circular-shaped depressions, or pits, on the surface of the comet.
Rosetta is currently moving closer to the comet as it prepares for a close flyby that will take it a little more than 3.5 miles from the nucleus on Sunday.
The NAVCAM is scheduled to take pictures one to two hours before and after closest approach, which means we can all expect some new amazing images of the comet sometime next week.
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