The event was marked by an increase in activity on the comet, which is expected to continue over the next few weeks as it now heads toward the outer Solar System.

Comet 67P is now 750 million km (466 mi) closer to the Sun than when Rosetta made its rendezvous about a year ago. During the approach, the increasing intensity of the sunlight heated the "dirty snowball" to temperatures tens of degrees above 0° C, causing the various ices to sublimate into gases and blowing out dust particles. These collected around the nucleus and were blown back by the solar winds to form the comet's distinctive coma and tail.

During perihelion, Rosetta took a series of high resolution images, though the dust prevented the spacecraft from approaching closer than 325 km (202 mi). The images show jets of gas and other signs of activity as the comet spewed out 300 kg (660 lb) of water per second, or about as much as two bathtubs, along with 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) of dust. ESA says that this is a thousand times greater than when Rosetta first arrived.