The European Space Agency released images taken by its unmanned space probe Rosetta, which is currently in orbit around a comet called 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko and will soon initiate an attempt at the first-ever landing on a comet's surface.
The four images fit together to create a larger montage that shows the neck of the comet — the area located between its two "lobes" — in more detail than previously released pictures. The pictures were taken over the course of 20 minutes at a distance of about 5 miles from the comet's surface.
The slight mismatch between the bottom left and bottom right photos is the result of the rotation of the comet and the movement of the probe within the time span of the photo sequence.
On Nov. 12, Rosetta will dispatch a landing module called Philae that will journey down to a part of the comet currently referred to as Site J. The ESA is holding a contest called #NameJ to pick a name for the landing site with a deadline for entries of Oct. 22.
The photo below, taken by Rosetta on Sept. 19 from a distance of about 18 miles from the comet's surface, captures the entirety of the comet. The photos offer a zoomed-in view of the adjoining area with the larger lobe on the left and the smaller on the right. The comet measures approximately 2.8 miles across.
On Sep. 26, another four-image montage was released from about 16 miles
out. The activity in the center of the image is sublimating ice and
escaping gases carrying streams of dust into space.
The spacecraft also took a "selfie" with the comet on Sept. 10.
Below are three of the four individual photos that make up the newly released montage.
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