Scientists are gearing up for an eventful ride as the Rosetta mission comet reaches its closest point to the sun.
The event, known as perihelion, takes place on Thursday and could be dramatic - perhaps even resulting in comet 67P breaking in half.
As a comet's orbit takes it nearer to the sun its activity increases, causing ices to vaporise and gas jets to burst out from its interior.
One recent dramatic outburst proved so powerful that it even pushed away the incoming solar wind.
The 'fireworks' took place on 29 July and was registered by several of Rosetta's instruments from their vantage point 115 miles (186km) from the comet.
Eruption was strong enough to push away the incoming solar wind, the stream of magnetically bound energetic particles from the sun.
Images taken by Rosetta's scientific camera Osiris showed a jet of gas and dust emerging from the side of the 'neck' joining the comet's two lobes.
Scientists estimated that material in the jet was travelling at 10 metres per second, or possibly much faster.
'This is the brightest jet we've seen so far,' comments Carsten Güttler, OSIRIS team member at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany.