The European Space Agency's has pinpointed five potential landing sites on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for its Rosetta space probe,

Rosetta was launched in 2004. It first shuttled from Earth to Mars and into deep space and after a 10-year journey, reached 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko this month.

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Rosetta entered Comet 67P's orbit last August 6. Officials from the ESA have identified five potential landing sites for Rosetta's lander named Philae to land on.

If successful, Philae will gather data on the comet for a period of six months. Philae is expected tp land this November.

Photos of the comet have been released by the ESA. It shows the comet's jagged terrain littered with boulders and rocks that can prove dangerous to Philae. The comet also has a craggy topography giving it an odd-shape.

Scientists have identified three distinct parts of the comet as the head, neck and body.

From 10 potential landing sites, scientists narrowed down their selection to five zones over the weekend.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's particular shape made it difficult for them to choose different locations, said Stephan Ulamec, Rosetta mission's lander manager at the German Aerospace Center.

Ulamec and his team considered these five selections not only for their flat terrain but each location gets six hours of daylight for each rotation of the comet.

Philae will need a sufficient amount of sunlight to recharge itself fully after its initial battery charge of 64 hours runs out. But too much sunlight can also overheat the lander and this is where scientists need to find a suitable spot that will balance the elements.

Within this year, the Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will make its closest approach in its 6.5 year journey around the sun. Rosetta will make observations from its orbit while Philae remains on the comet's surface gathering data and measuring its changes and activity.

ESA will rank the top five landing sites by September 14. November 11 will be the tentative landing date.

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