Corey S PowellThis is the surface of a comet! Dust is swirling around the surface of Comet 67/P -- captured in 2016 by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft, processing by Jacint Roger Perez.
Still one of the most remarkable scenes in space exploration.
As a kid I learned that comets are just "dirty snowballs." Look at how much richer the reality is!
The Rosetta spacecraft took this amazing close-up of Comet 67/P from a distance of 20 km.
https://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/04/01/cometwatch-28-march-14-km-flyby/ #science #nature #space #astronomy
Rachel Greenham@coreyspowell they *are* dirty snowballs, the error is that word "just”. because "dirty" might as well be a synonym for “endlessly fascinating complicated stuff that might just help us figure out how life starts”… 😀
Agreed, presentation is everything!
I recall a lot of failure of imagination -- people presenting a "snowball" as a featureless blob, not thinking about how much complexity there is in nature at every level.