{"id":5275,"date":"2017-03-21T19:29:43","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T18:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ounews.co\/?p=5275"},"modified":"2017-03-21T19:29:43","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T18:29:43","slug":"crumbling-comet-great-debate-whether-rosetta-rock-67p-breaking-apart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/science-mct\/space\/crumbling-comet-great-debate-whether-rosetta-rock-67p-breaking-apart\/","title":{"rendered":"Crumbling comet? The great debate about whether Rosetta rock 67P is breaking apart"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is almost six months since the Rosetta spacecraft completed its operations in a controlled dive onto the surface<\/a> of comet 67P\/Churyumov-Gerasimanko. The landing, after which Rosetta could no longer communicate with Earth, may have marked the end of data collection from the comet \u2013 but not the end of news about 67P. The archive of information amassed during the mission will be a rich source of material for many years. In fact, the data interpretation phase of the mission has barely begun.<\/p>\n

Now two new studies report that Rosetta managed to capture both fracturing of its surface and a landslide which triggered a major outburst of dust on the comet \u2013 an event which revealed its pristine interior.<\/p>\n