Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was discovered in 1969 by Ukranian astronomers Svetlana Gerasimenko and Klym Churyumov. The comet follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun, located between the orbits of Earth and Jupiter. It takes approximately 6.45 Earth years to complete one orbit. 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is one of the most extensively studied comets. Between 2014 and 2016, the Rosetta space probe conducted detailed examinations of the comet and successfully deployed the Philae lander, which made important measurements on the comet's surface. The comet has an irregular shape with a diameter of about four kilometers. Its composition is primarily water ice, mixed with carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, and various simple organic compounds. It also contains a substantial amount of dark rocky dust, giving it a notably dark appearance. This material is irregularly distributed within the comet, which is composed of uneven ice blocks, ranging from tens to hundreds of meters in diameter. Small cavities between these blocks are filled with crushed ice. For most of its orbit, the comet remains an inactive, frozen body, known as the comet nucleus. However, as it approaches the Sun, the surface heats up, causing the volatile substances to evaporate and form a thin, temporary atmosphere, or halo, around the nucleus. The gas and dust particles released are shaped by the solar wind, spreading along the comet's orbit. This process generates the comet's characteristic tail, which can be observed as either a plasma tail or a dust tail.