These pictures from the widespread reaches of the Solar system continue to astonish me.

From Astronomy Picture of the Day for 28/11/21.

This is a photo of a kilometre high cliff – on Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Taken by the Rosetta spacecraft.

It has a certain stark beauty.

Due to the comet’s low gravity you could jump off the cliff and likely survive.

From You Tube via Astronomy Picture of the Day for 15/3/20. A scene constructed from 33 consecutive still images captured by the Rosetta spacecraft‘s camera over 25 minutes.

It’s not snow but dust and ice particles drifting near the comet’s surface. The brighter specks are most likely cosmic rays though. From the camera’s perspective background stars are moving from top to bottom.

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.

Below is a video of the approach by the Rosetta spacecraft to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko as posted on Astronomy Picture of the Day, 11/8/14.

The ambition of this mission is simply mind-boggling.

What weird things comets are though. Not quite what Jules Verne imagined I think.