Lumpy, bumpy, fluffy and layered: a picture of Rosetta`s target comet builds up

[Orstio]

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Observational and theoretical studies of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of ESA’s Rosetta mission, are building a detailed portrait of the comet’s nucleus as it travels around the Sun.
 

[span class=imagecaption]Comet nuclei are considered the most pristine bodies in the Solar System. Consequently, studies of comet nuclei shed an essential light on the processes occurring in the very initial stages of the Solar System formation and on the role they could have played for the origin of life on Earth.[/span]

Observations of the comet using the 8.2 m-ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) show an irregularly-s. . .