Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko Creates Its Tails

NASA ^ | 19 Oct, 2025 | Image Credit & License: ESA, Rosetta, NAVCAM

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Where do comet tails come from? There are usually no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. One of the best images of emerging jets is shown in the featured picture, taken in 2015 by ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft that orbited Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Comet CG) from 2014 to 2016. The picture shows plumes of gas and dust escaping numerous places from Comet CG's nucleus as it neared the Sun and heated up. The comet has two prominent lobes, the larger one spanning about 4 kilometers, and a smaller 2.5-kilometer lobe connected by a narrow neck. Analyses indicate that evaporation must be taking place well inside the comet's surface to create the jets of gas, dust, and ice that we see emitted through the surface. Comet CG (also known as Comet 67P) loses in jets about a meter of surface depth during each of its 6.44-year orbits around the Sun, a rate at which will completely destroy the comet in only thousands of years. In 2016, Rosetta's mission ended with a controlled impact onto Comet CG's surface.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; churyumovgerasimenko; comet67p; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[going hot]

Missing chunk of mars?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

THAT is the stuff of nightmares! Can you imagine being stranded on that rock? Yikes!

[Nateman]

Rosetta sent a probe to land on the comet. It bounced off the surface three times and fell into a crack . It took two years to finally determine where it ended up.

[telescope115]

That is such a cool picture. It reminds me of the movie Armageddon. It looks like two gigantic pieces of modeling clay squished together.

[MtnClimber]

What would you grow on that?

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’m good, but I’m not THAT good!

[rfp1234]

Looks like claymation.