Science Focus
original post »Thursday, the ESA's Rosetta probe returned images from the comet it orbits during its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion. At perihelion, Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is about 186 million kilometers from the Sun, or a bit outside of Earth's orbit (150 million kilometers).
With the added warming from the Sun, the comet has been experiencing higher levels of activity, with gasses escaping from its interior at higher levels, pushing dust and other material out into space. Rosetta's instruments indicate about 300 liters of water are being ejected every second, meaning the comet is losing 26 million kilograms per day during this period. Another 86 million kilograms of dust are also being lost. The activity should remain high for several weeks after perihelion.
Because of the large volumes of material jetting out of the comet, the ESA's operators have backed Rosetta off to an orbit that's over 325km from the comet's surface. But that's still close enough for some pretty spectacular images.
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