Rosetta’s comet

Two comets collided at low speed in the early Solar System to give rise to the distinctive ‘rubber duck’ shape of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The image shown here was taken on 22 August 2014 at a distance of 63.4 km from the comet centre. It shows the comet’s small lobe to the left, with the striking cliffs of Hathor clearly visible. In the foreground on the far right, the smooth Imhotep region can be seen on the large lobe. The image scale is 5.4 m/pixel and it measures 5.5 km across.

More information: How Rosetta’s comet got its shape