This year's hottest outer space destination just got even hotter. These pictures, taken by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft between 24 March and 4 May, show the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko emitting a halo of dust and gas as it approaches the sun. If all goes to plan, Rosetta will make history later this year when it orbits and then lands on the comet's surface – two firsts for space exploration.
Comets get their halo, or coma, when the sun heats frozen gases that erupt from the surface and scatter dust everywhere. These particles remain in orbit around the central part of the comet, the nucleus, and make it appear much larger – the coma in these pictures extends 1300 kilometres into space.
Rosetta launched in 2004 and was woken up in January this year after a three year slumber
The craft is still 2 million kilometres away from the comet, but the pictures it took of the comet "waking up" have helped researchers determine its rotation period. It turns out the comet completes a full turn every 12.4 hours, about 20 minutes shorter than previously thought.
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