14 DAY TRIAL // It was back in August 2014 that the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe officially became the first spacecraft ever to reach a comet and successfully place itself in its orbit.
The Rosetta probe has been trailing Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on its journey towards the core of our Solar System ever since. Just a few days back, the spacecraft delivered yet another view of its target orb.
The image in question, available below, was obtained on May 23 from a distance of just 138 kilometers (86 miles) from the comet's center and made public by European Space Agency scientists just yesterday, June 5.
In this space image, the neck region of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko remains hidden in the shadows. We can, however, observe outflows of material originating from the comet's nucleus.
“The image was processed in LightRoom to convey the ever increasing activity of the comet, with swirling outflows of material emanating from various parts of the nucleus,” mission scientists explain.
These days, Rosetta and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are located at a distance of nearly 316 million kilometers (196 million miles) from Earth and a little over 222 million kilometers (138 million miles) from the Sun.
Since it was launched over a decade ago, in March 2004, the Rosetta probe has covered a distance of almost 7 billion kilometers (4.5 billion miles).
