<p><span style="font-family: Oswald; font-size: 16pt;">As Rosetta’s comet approached its most active period last year, the spacecraft spotted carbon dioxide ice – never before seen on a comet – followed by
<p></p> <p>Rosetta is set to complete its historic mission in a controlled descent to the surface of its comet on 30 September, with the end of mission confirmation predicted to be
<p></p> <p>ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft is set to complete its incredible mission in a controlled descent to the surface of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/67P/Churyumov%E2%80%93Gerasimenko" target="_blank">Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko</a> on 30 September. </p> <p>Mission experts joined an ESA
<p></p> <p>Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.</p> <p>The images were taken on
<p></p> <p>Animation visualising Rosetta’s two-year journey around Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.</p> <p>The animation begins on 31 July 2014, during Rosetta’s final approach to the comet after its ten-year journey through space. The spacecraft arrived
<p></p> <p>ESA is participating in today’s international <a href="http://asteroidday.org/" target="_blank">Asteroid Day</a>, to mark the largest observed asteroid strike in recorded history – the 1908 airburst above Tunguska in Siberia. The Agency
<p></p> <p>Silent since its last call to mothership Rosetta seven months ago, the Philae lander is facing conditions on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko from which it is unlikely to recover.</p> <p>Rosetta, which continues its
<p></p> <p>One year since Philae made its historic landing on a comet, mission teams remain hopeful for renewed contact with the lander, while also looking ahead to next year’s grand finale:
<p></p> <p>Since its arrival at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft has been surveying the surface and the environment of this curiously shaped body. But for a long time,
<p><a href="http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2015/09/the_water-ice_cycle_of_rosetta_s_comet/15614542-3-eng-GB/The_water-ice_cycle_of_Rosetta_s_comet_large.jpg" target="_blank"></a></p> <p>ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has provided evidence for a daily water-ice cycle on and near the surface of comets.</p> <p>Comets are celestial bodies comprising a mixture of dust and ices,