At http://phys.org/print335689483.html … the spacecraft is still orbiting the comet but is not in contact with the probe. However, it is able to continue with its own research, gathering data. In the long term it is hoped that Rosetta will be around long enough to witness the development of the comet's coma – as it get closer to the Sun.
At http://phys.org/print335699844.html … what is the difference between asteroids and comets – is the subject of this post, asking the question and then providing the mainstream answer. Asteroids consist of metals and rocky materials but we are still told that comets are made of ice, dust, and rocky concretions as well as organic compounds. When comets get close to the Sun they lose material but asteroids remain intact.
It seems the Rosetta Mission has not yet caused a rethink of mainstream comet theory (see also www.thunderbolts,info which is currently raising a post on this) and I suppose that a paradigm shift cannot occur until the data has been fully analysed, papers written, and academics have chewed on the cud. An interesting outline of the current consensus model of comets and asteroids and worthwhile printing off and saving in a file to look back later in the year. They have already accepted the reality of asteroids and comets striking the Earth in the past and are thinking in terms of the building blocks of life possibly having an origin in space. These are major shifts in mainstream thinking and differ quite markedly to what the consensus was in Velikovsky's life time.
At http://phys.org/print335609514.html … comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko as seen from the lens of the Hubble Space Telescope.