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Comets with their coma and tail are a spectacular sight on the night sky; they are important objects to understand the origin of our solar system. Comets are pristine and thus carry information on how they initially formed 4.5 billion years ago. 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is the first comet studied in detail with a spacecraft in its vicinity for more than two years along its orbit around the sun. The Rosetta mission of the European Space Agency arrived on August 6, 2014, at the target comet 67P. Onboard the Rosetta spacecraft, the two scientific cameras, the OSIRIS narrow- and the wide-angle camera, are observing the cometary nucleus, its activity, as well as the dust and gas environment. The presentation will give an overview on what OSIRIS observed. The scientific results reveal a nucleus with two lobes and varied morphology. Active regions are located at steep cliffs and collapsed pits which form collimated gas jets. Dust is accelerated by the gas, forming bright jet filaments and the large scale, diffuse coma of the comet.

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Holger Sierks , Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
HS III
Contact: Simon Trebst