---
title: "Watch This Breathtaking, Close-Up Clip Of The Surface of A Distant Comet"
description: "The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft took a series of exposures in 2016 of distant comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko's surface."
date: "2018-04-25"
modified: "2019-06-14"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/clip-of-distant-comet-p67"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "67p/churyumov-gerasimenko"
  - "comet"
  - "comet 67p"
  - "gif"
  - "Rosetta"
---

# Watch This Breathtaking, Close-Up Clip Of The Surface of A Distant Comet

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/p67.png>)
*\<em\>Image: \<a href="https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30765" target="\_blank"\>ESA\</a\>\</em\>*

It was a landmark feat: a space mission entered the orbit of a distant comet for the first time.

The European Space Agency's [Rosetta](<http://rosetta.esa.int/>) rendezvoused with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in the outer reaches of the Solar System.

After ten years of traveling through deep space, powered mainly by solar cells, Rosetta neared the comet not far (relatively speaking) from the orbit of Jupiter, and started circling it.

In November 2014, Rosetta released a tiny lander onto the mysterious comet to have a closer look — the [first time](<http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta/Europe_s_comet_chaser>) we've ever dispatched a robotic lander on a comet's rocky surface.

And the view was breathtaking. The lander sent back a series of images straight from the surface of 67P. A couple of years later, Twitter user [Iandru79](<https://twitter.com/esascience/status/988697671585161216>) created this animated short clip from a series of long exposures, taken back in 2016.

You know what, you should really just watch it:

https://twitter.com/landru79/status/988490703075463168

If you want to follow up with Rosetta, and find out where it is right now (plus, you'll hear some spooky atmospheric music while you track it down), [click here](<http://sci.esa.int/where_is_rosetta/>).

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)