for more information read: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/20/comet-67p-rosetta-probe-close-encounter-origins-of-life-churyumov-gerasimenko
will be interesting what they find out during this mission

let me add: http://www.hawaiireporter.com/esa-spacecraft-to-land-on-a-comet/123 which contains a video describing the mission
only a few days to go before more detailed information will become available

Cool stuff.

So am I to guess that once it gets closer to our Sun (the comet), Rosetta and Philae who are following it, will most likely burn away, explode, malfunction, die? But the info they gather will be sent to Earth.

for the most accurate information and up to date pictures: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Rosetta
but the newest pictures are not much of an improvement on the one in post#1
the newest model from the site is:



at the moment the probe is getting closer and closer to the comet, in a week from now it should be at it's first destination
getting more information to position itself closer and then launching a smaller probe to land on the comet

the newest released picture, taken from a distance of 1,950km and each pixel representing ~37m:

That was a pretty neat read, thanks

now less than 500 km to go, ie less than 0.00001% of it's journey -> http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/europes-rosetta-probe-reaches-climax-its-comet-chasing-mission-n171626
the article contains a newer picture from the navigation camera
one first result (a few days old) from the mission is that the comet is warmer than it was expected with a 'hot' -70C (-94F):

nearly there, the following article contains a video showing how the final approach will work out (hopefully):

http://www.universetoday.com/113676/rosetta-probe-swoops-closer-to-comet-destination-than-iss-is-to-earth-and-reveals-exquisite-views/

and here a video showing how the probe will swing into orbit

http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2014/08/How_to_orbit_a_comet

Wow that series of maneuvers to enter orbit around the comet is incredible. I can't imagine how much effort went into figuring that out.