News in Brief Planetary Science

Rosetta may have spotted comet’s primordial ingredients

New images reveal 67P’s craggy terrain

Comet 67P goosebumps

PRIMORDIAL SPHERES?  These bumps, seen here along a slope on the comet, could be pristine examples of chunks of ice and dust that stuck together in the solar system 4.6 billion years ago to form asteroids, planets and comets.

 

ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

By Andrew Grant

- More than 2 years ago

SAN FRANCISCO — The dynamic, rugged terrain of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko may be exposing the meter-wide building blocks that make up the comet, scientists reported December 17 at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting.