As viewed from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko sprays out gas just twelve hours before its closest approach to the sun (on this pass.) From Astronomy Picture of the Day, 15/8/15.

Pecdant’s corner:- USian alert? The APOD page says the comet’s primordial ices are sublimating. That would be subliming, then. In my understanding to sublimate is to suppress or divert an instinct.

Okay, so the harpoons didn’t fire and the lander bounced twice, but to set down on a comet is a stunning achievement.

(Pinched from the Daily Galaxy, picture from ESA/Rosetta/Philae)

*Not quite; but I couldn’t resist.