esa’s rosetta spacecraft has captured stunning images of a dust jet erupting from comet 67p churyumov gerasimenko the jet may have been caused by a wave of heat reaching ice trapped under the surface, causing an explosion of material but it is unusual, because so far such activity has only been spotted on the day side of the comet   not the night, like this scroll down for video  this animation shows the jet erupting from comet 67p the first image was taken at 7:13am bst (2:13am est) on 12 march, and the second was taken two minutes later the jet is unusual because it is erupting from the dark underside of the comet, whereas such activity had only been seen on the day side so far credit: esa  the two images, released yesterday, were taken by the osiris camera on the rosetta spacecraft from a distance of 47 miles (75km), according to esa as the comet gets closer to the sun, its surface gets warmer, causing frozen gases to erupt from the surface, carrying dust particles but it’s not clear if this caused the jet   or an explosion of material caused by ice sublimating (turning from solid to gas) underground in the first image, taken at 7:13am bst (2:13am est) on 12 march, the upper comet can be seen with several rays of dust illuminated by the sun, while the dark underside shows no such features two minutes later though, in the second image, a spectacular new jet emerges from the dark side, hurling dust into space at 26ft (eight metres) per second ‘this was a chance discovery,’ said osiris principal investigator dr holger sierks from the max planck institute for solar system research (mps) in germany ‘no one has ever witnessed the wake up of a dust jet before it is impossible to plan such an image’ how or why the activity occurred in the dark region of the comet, though, is not yet understood ‘it is possible that the first rays of sunlight hit some cliffs or outcrops that remained hidden to rosetta due to the orbital position at the time,’ said osiris scientist dr jean baptiste vincent, also from the mps the rosetta probe, which carried the philae lander, launched into space in 2004, using the gravity of earth and mars to slingshot its way towards comet 67p/churyumov gerasimenko it chased comet 67p through space for more than ten years, and entered orbit in august 2014 after a four billion mile (65 billion km) journey, the probe then successfully released the philae lander from its grip to land on the comet on 12 november 2014, travelling at 33ft (one metre) per second relative to the comet but when it first made contact with the surface it failed to fire harpoons that would have kept it attached to the comet this resulted in it bouncing to a height of 062 miles (1km) above the comet before again landing on the surface it then bounced again, but to a much lower altitude philae managed to perform more than 90 per cent of its goals before running out of power rosetta, meanwhile, is continuing to orbit and study the comet from data collected by the two proves, esa said that water on the comet was different to that on earth   suggesting water on our world came from an asteroid, not a comet in the first image (left), the upper comet can be seen with several rays of dust illuminated by the sun, while the dark underside shows no such features two minutes later, in the second image (right), a spectacular new jet emerges from the dark side, hurling dust into space at 26ft (eight metres) per second  the rosetta probe, illustrated, which carried the philae lander, launched into space in 2004, using the gravity of earth and mars to slingshot its way towards comet 67p it chased comet 67p/churyumov gerasimenko through space for more than ten years, and entered orbit in august 2014  the region of the comet where this jet erupted from is known as imhotep by 7:17am bst (2:17am est), the region had rotated into sunlight, and the jet was no longer visible against the overexposed coma this means scientists aren’t sure if the eruption was short lived, or was a continuous jet ‘usually, 67p’s dust jets are rather long lived,’ said dr vincent ‘most of them last for a full dayside rotation of approximately six hours and even reappear in the next rotation’ rosetta is continuing to study comet 67p ahead of its closest approach to the sun in august and engineers on earth are also hopeful that the philae lander on the surface will soon get enough solar power to wake up from its slumber this recent image was taken on 15 april from a distance of 103 miles (165km) it has been processed to spotlight the comet’s activity, including a striking jet on the left, near the neck region  this image was also taken on 15 april, from a distance of 106 miles (170km) from the comet’s centre it shows the small lobe of the comet on the left, and its large lobe on the right  rosetta is continuing to study comet 67p ahead of its closest approach to the sun in august and engineers on earth are also hopeful that the philae lander (illustrated) on the surface will soon get enough solar power to wake up from its slumber 
two minutes rosetta osiris germany
scientists in germany observed a jet erupting from comet 67p  the event was captured by the osiris camera on the rosetta spacecraft  in images two minutes apart, the jet appears on the dark side of the comet  it may have formed when melting ice caused an explosion of material 