NASA researchers have compared comets to deep fried ice cream that have hard, outer crusts and softer interiors based on data from the Rosetta probe and its missing Philae lander.

They used an icebox-like instrument called Himalaya that showed the fluffy ice on the surface of Comet 67P Churyumov/Gerasimenko crystallizes and hardens while the comet warms-up as it moves towards the Sun.

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Researchers said amorphous ice, or porous ice, on the comet is like cotton candy. Because of extremely cold temperatures of some minus 243 degrees Celsius (minus 405 degrees Fahrenheit), water vapor molecules are flash-frozen and haphazardly mixed with other molecules such as organics.

"A comet is like deep fried ice cream. The crust is made of crystalline ice, while the interior is colder and more porous. The organics are like a final layer of chocolate on top," said Murthy Gudipati of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Sun's energy is slowly heating up the insides of Cmet 67P, allowing gases trapped in its icy core to be released and escape to the surface. The streaming jets of gas give-off a slight sheen, an optical feature especially striking when it's enhanced by the Rosetta probe's imaging instruments.

The comet's ice had been infused with a type of organics called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, which are seen everywhere in deep space. Researchers were surprised because removing PAHs from the ice mixtures gave water molecules room to link-up and form the more tightly packed structures of crystalline ice.

Knowing composition of comets is important to understand how they might have delivered water and organics to our planet.

Tagscomet, NASA, comet 67P, space exploration, Rosetta mission, Churyumov-Gerasimenko, amorphous ice