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Space

Amazing GIF shows dust and cosmic rays raining down on comet 67P

By Leah Crane

24 April 2018

It鈥檚 a cosmic winter wonderland. Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko is awash in what looks like snow in this series of images from the European Space Agency鈥檚 (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft.

The images were captured over the course of 25 minutes on 1 June 2016, and processed by twitter user @landru79.

Much of this apparent 鈥渟now鈥 wouldn鈥檛 actually be visible if you were standing on 67P鈥檚 surface. It is made of cosmic rays 鈥 charged subatomic particles that flit across the universe. As they hit the camera鈥檚 sensors, they register as streaks of light.

Some of bright specks are actually snow 鈥 dust and ice particles floating above the comet鈥檚 surface. And many of them are stars behind the rocky cliffside on 67P鈥檚 surface.

ESA senior science advisor Mark McCaughrean that the stars in the background are in the direction of the constellation Canis Major.

The points that start at the top of the image and disappear beyond the horizon are stars and star clusters moving across the comet鈥檚 alien skies.

Read more: Rosetta’s biggest hits: The comet chaser’s top seven discoveries

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