The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Much of the comet’s regular activity can be linked back to the steady erosion of cliff walls that are initially fractured by thermal or mechanical erosion. These fractures propagate into the underlying mixture of ice and dust. As the ices sublimate, the gases escape through the fractures, acting a bit like nozzles to focus the gas flows and picking up dust a long the way to create the distinct collimated jets observed in Rosetta’s images. Continued cracking, heating and sublimation eventually leads to sudden collapse of the cliff wall – the likely source of more-transient outburst events. At the same time, the debris that falls to the foot of the cliff also exposes previously hidden material, contributing to the observed outflow.