Rosetta’s temperature measurments reveal comet 67P is not covered in ice

(The latest image of the comet – Photo Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team et al)

After travelling nearly 6.4 billion kilometres through the Solar System, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft is just 4 days away from ‘arriving’ at comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. With less than 700km separating the objects, Rosetta has been able to measure, for the first time, the temperature of the 67P, revealing that the cosmic body is too hot to be covered in ice.