surface

This is the First Photo Ever Taken from the Surface of a Comet

Human kind did something incredible yesterday: we landed something on the surface of a comet. After a 10 year journey to Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, Rosetta released its lander Philae, which arrived on the comet's surface, bounced around a bit because of a malfunction, and then sent back the very first photo from the surface of a comet.

Side-by-Side Pictures Show the Surfaces of Earth, Mars, Venus, Titan, the Moon and an Asteroid

Oh the places you'll go... Dr. Seuss may not have written those words to humankind as a whole, but he may as well have. As the ESA and its Rosetta Spacecraft prepare to land, for the first time ever, on a comet, this image serves as an awe-inspiring reminder of the places we've already been.

Namely: An asteroid, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Titan and, of course, our own mother Earth.

This Colorized Photo of Comet 67P Shows Its Detailed Landscape from 38 Miles Above the Surface

On September 5th of this year, the OSIRIS imaging system aboard the European Space Agency’s Rosetta Orbiter snapped one of the closest looks at a comet that we’ve ever seen. Roughly 38.5 miles from the surface of Comet 67P, the photograph captured an incredible amount of detail, even showing the boulders on the surface of the comet.

After the original black and white image was published though, Flickr user 2di7 & titanio44 decided to bring the image to life even more by using obtainable information about Comet 67P to colorize it to the best of his or her ability. You can see the resulting image above.