Rosetta's latest selfie: just showing off now

[Nipuna]

(Image: ESA/Rosetta/Philae/CIVA)

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Rosetta just can't stop snapping selfies – but let's be honest, if you were hanging out this close to a comet, you'd want to show off too.

The European Space Agency spacecraft is now orbiting just 16 kilometres from the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, meaning the rubber-duck shaped rock looms much larger than in Rosetta's previous selfie snapped last month.

These selfies are taken by a camera on board Rosetta's Philae lander craft, but they are a bit of a cheat, combining a short exposure picture of the spacecraft with a long exposure of the comet. That's because 67P actually looks as black as the empty space surrounding it, but that would hardly be worth uploading to Instagram. The long exposure means we can see details on the comet's surface, along with jets of gas emerging as it heats up on its journey towards the sun.

This is the last photo we're getting from Philae before it lands on the comet on 12 November. If all goes to plan, the pictures it sends back as it descends and touches down on the surface should be even more incredible than this one.