--- title: Here's the Solar System's Weirdest Looking Comet description: Comets are like movie stars—always more glamorous with their makeup on. canonical: https://time.com/3024953/comet-rosetta-spacecraft/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-23T20:18:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:01.490Z article:section: Science og:title: Strangest Comet Ever—and a Spacecraft is Headed Straight For It og:description: Comets are like movie stars—always more glamorous with their makeup on. og:url: https://time.com/3024953/comet-rosetta-spacecraft/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17aa95e9cdc52e99/69869ce9f983e72a7504ef33/rosetta-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko.gif?branch=production&width=622&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 622 og:image:height: 350 og:image:alt: The OSIRIS instrument on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft photographed the mission's destination comet on July 14, 2014, from about 7,500 miles away. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Strangest Comet Ever—and a Spacecraft is Headed Straight For It twitter:description: Comets are like movie stars—always more glamorous with their makeup on. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17aa95e9cdc52e99/69869ce9f983e72a7504ef33/rosetta-comet-67p-churyumov-gerasimenko.gif?branch=production&width=622&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's the Solar System's Weirdest-Looking Comet > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: NASA's Chief: 'Survival Of Human Race' Depends On Mission To Mars [Watch (HLS stream): NASA's Chief: 'Survival Of Human Race' Depends On Mission To Mars](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jXF93nNv.m3u8) (1:52)  _Published 2014-04-24. The idea of human extinction can really grab headlines, which may be why the Human 2 Mars Summit and NASA administrator Charles Bolden are suddenly making headlines. Wednesday, NASA’s chief laid out his plan for putting humans on Mars by 2030._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 23, 2014 8:18 PM UTC  The OSIRIS instrument on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft photographed the mission's destination comet on July 14, 2014, from about 7,500 miles away. The OSIRIS instrument on the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft photographed the mission's destination comet on July 14, 2014, from about 7,500 miles away. ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Jul 23, 2014 8:18 PM UTC A comet has a lot to hide. To most people, it’s among the most glamorous objects in the solar system—brilliantly illuminated, racing through space with its glowing tail streaming far behind it. That, at least, is how comets look from great distances, and only when they’re close enough to the sun for the outward-flowing solar wind to light them up and produce those signature tails. But deeper in space, without the solar floodlights? Not so much. There the comet reveals itself for what it is: a dirty snowball of ice and rock and not a whole lot more. There may be no comet for which that’s truer than the one known unlyrically as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as this GIF made up of images taken by the fast-approaching Rosetta spacecraft reveals. The comet is a lumpy, two-lobed body, measuring about 1.8 mi by 3 mi. (3×5 km), which one astronomer compares to a rubber ducky, and most other folks would describe as just plain ugly. But Rosetta is an anxious suitor all the same. The spacecraft, built by the European Space Agency, has been en route since its launch in 2004\. Rosetta will rendezvous with the comet on August 6 and enter orbit around it shortly there after. In November, it will dispatch a small lander down to its surface—becoming the first spacecraft to master either of those maneuvers, never mind both. The comet may never be much to look at up close, but the science it could yield—offering astronomers their closest ever look at one of the oldest artifacts of the ancient solar system—could more than make up for that. Appearance has never been everything—and in the case of a historic mission like this one, that’s truer than ever. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3024953/comet-rosetta-spacecraft/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3024953/comet-rosetta-spacecraft/"},"headline":"Here's the Solar System's Weirdest-Looking Comet","datePublished":"2014-07-23T20:18:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:01:01.490Z","description":"Comets are like movie stars—always more glamorous with their makeup on. 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