Close up with a comet

This is a picture of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, taken by a camera system known as OSIRIS on board the European Space Agency’s spacecraft Rosetta.

If you don’t like the look of it, don’t worry. There are 6,999 others from which to choose.

In a marvellous demonstration of the principle that scientific evidence should be available to any and all comers, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Munich, Germany, has released every single image of the comet taken during Rosetta’s close encounter between March 2014 and September 2016.

They can be found, free and in perpetuity, here.

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