This year will go down as the biggest yet for folks like me who hold an interest in both space exploration and rodeo. That's because the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft is just about ready to rendezvous with an actual comet in deep space, where it will deploy a lander called Philae that will attach itself to the icy rock and ride it bareback around the sun.
It's amazing the lengths that can be required to find a lift when you don't have Uber in your town.
Rosetta's arrival at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is set to go down on August 6, but it's already been sending back images of Philae's future ride. The ESA today released the above picture of a butterfly-looking shape, captured on Tuesday from a distance of 1,210 miles.
By this time next week, Rosetta will be within only 60 miles of the comet, said the ESA, where it can begin mapping it in detail to start identifying possible landing sites. Once Philae lands and drills itself into the surface of the comet, Rosetta will accompany both on their swing past the sun.
While this is quite literally humanity's first rodeo of this sort, Rosetta still has the distinct advantage that this bronco likely doesn't buck. Keep checking back with Crave for updates on Rosetta and Philae's epic ride.
Here's the magnificent last view NASA's Kepler Space Telescope ever saw: The prolific planet finder went to sleep for good last year, but captured one final view before saying goodnight.
ESA Mars rover named after Rosalind Franklin, brilliant DNA pioneer: Franklin, who died in 1958, helped us understand the molecular makeup of DNA and RNA.
Discuss: Close-up of first comet to give a ride around the sun
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