# @nasaartemis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/2Lj9YbGhyg
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/15348007-nasaartemis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/c039a1c4af.jpg
- **Posted:** 2015-05-02T13:08:10.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA Artemis (@nasaartemis) — https://gondola.cc/nasaartemis

## Caption

"A comet is like deep fried ice cream," said Murthy Gudipati of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The crust is made of crystalline ice, while the interior is colder and more porous. The organics are like a final layer of chocolate on top." Since launch in 2004, ESA's Rosetta mission has been chasing down comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The comet is a regular visitor to the inner Solar System, orbiting the Sun once every 6.5 years between the orbits of Jupiter and Earth.

Like all comets, Churyumov-Gerasimenko is named after its discoverers. It was first observed in 1969 and has now been observed from Earth on seven approaches to the Sun: in 1969, 1976, 1982, 1989, 1996, 2002 and 2009. It was also imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2003, which allowed estimates of its size and shape to be made – an irregular object roughly 3 x 5 km across.

This NAVCAM image taken on February 15  has been processed to bring out the details of the comet’s activity. The exposure time of the image is 4 seconds. 
Happy space Saturday folks! 
Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM

#nasa #esa #rosetta #comet #jpl #spacesaturday #blackandwhite #texture #imagery #hubble #space

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## Tags

nasa, hubble, spacesaturday, imagery, space, blackandwhite, texture, rosetta, jpl, esa, comet

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