Rosetta Gets Some Sun as Things on 67P Heat Up [PHOTOS]

The historic spacecraft Rosetta and its comet host are closer to the Sun than ever before, and that means one thing: breathtaking photos.

Above is a series of images consecutively snapped by the Rosetta spacecraft's OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on 12 August 2015, just a few hours before the comet reached the closest point to the Sun along its 6.5-year orbit. The moments closing up to this point - called the perihelion - were expected to deliver some stunning imagery, and they certainly delivered.

But what exactly are we seeing here? Why does it seem that Rosetta's host comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is lit up like a roman candle? According to the ESA, those rays reaching out from the comet are clouds of gas and steam, which continue to escape at greater and greater rates from the rubber-ducky-shaped ice-ball.

NASA has already reported that 67P is melting much faster than it was last year, largely because the comet is drawing ever-closer to our Sun in a wide-but-spiraling orbit. It will soon grow too hot even for the Rosetta spacecraft to stand, and the primary stage of this historic mission will come to an end.

Around the peak of the perihelion, the comet reportedly burst outward with what can only be described as "jets of steam" breaking through the comet's surface of ice and dust. (Scroll to read on...)

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