Comet 67P activity approaching perihelion

I love this beautiful animation of Comet 67P/C-G as it approached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun – 186 million km distance). Perihelion occurred on August 13th 2015 when activity on the comet will have reached peak intensity but it will continue to be active for weeks to follow. In the animation below you can see jets and outbursts of activity as the frozen ices and gases are heated up by the Sun and burst from the comet. Thank goodness 67P didn’t get any closer to the Sun otherwise it might have broken into pieces!

Activity from 67P/C-G approaching perihelion
Activity from 67P/C-G approaching perihelion Copyright ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
%d bloggers like this: