Rosetta Orbiter to Comet 67P: Be My Valentine?

On February 14, the European Space Agency's Rosetta orbiter will get the closest it's ever been to its target comet, 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Dear Comet 67P,

It seems like fate that we should be brought closest together on February 14, Valentine's Day. For us, my little rubber ducky, the stars have literally aligned.

I'll be making my advance at around 12.41 ​GMT, swooping in for what I hope will be the first of many close encounters. I pray you don't get offended if I say that I'm particularly looking forward to getting a close-up peek of your largest lobe—that spot just above your Imhotep region, so appropriately named after a god.

I want you to know that this isn't a casual fling, entered into lightly; I've been planning my next move for some time now. Earlier this month, I got ESA to pull me out of my comfortable orbit 26km from your extraordinarily varied sur​face. It wasn't easy; to get closer to you, I knew I would first have to take a step back—a whole 140km, in fact—before making my approach.

And now, my efforts pay off. I'm preparing to fly past you at a mere 6km distance. I will actually be able to sniff—taste, even!—the deepest parts of your coma, revelling in its signature sc​ent. Thanks to the position of the Sun directly behind you, I should also be able to get some great pictures, with no shadows on your famously dark face. If I close my sensors, perhaps I can imagine gently grazing the dust on your uppermost layer…

Oh! So near, but oh so far!

But I can wait. I have been chasing you for over a decade now, after all. Did you get my gift last November? As I couldn't be with you yet, I thought I'd send along th​e Philae lander to communicate between us. Haven't heard from him ​for a while now, though, thinking about it.

I know that, should our trajectories ever arrange themselves so that we may actually touch, our love would be necessarily​ short-lived. But what matter, when we are both hurtling through space to our inevitable demise?

Be my Valentine?

Your Rosetta