The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has just entered the orbit of Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko and new photos show the comet seems to be "smiling" at the spacecraft.

After shuttling from Earth to Mars and into deep space during a fantastic10-year journey, Rosetta finally reached its target comet, 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko,last week.

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Images beamed to Earth by Rosetta captured some unusual "human-like features" on the comet's surface from an altitude of 62 miles above the comet.

The new photographs show some craggy outlines of a human profile made from rock and ice on the icy comet's surface.

This phenomenon is quite common in space photography and these "human faces'" are merely optical illusions. This is called "pareidolia," a phenomenon where the brain recognizes familiar objects or subjects and associates them with unknown entities.

Some other famous optical illusions on heavenly bodies include the "Man on the Moon" taken from the 1902 film classic "Journey to the Moon," the "Cookie Monster" on Mercury and the famous "Face on Mars."

The "Face on Mars" is a controversial photograph taken by NASA's Viking 1 Mars orbiter in 1976 that distinctly shows a grim human face looking upwards at the stars.

Further observation from other spacecraft such as NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Europe's Mars Express debunked this "face," which scientists said was caused by a play of light and shadows.

Some nebulae are also called by names of known objects they resemble such as the Crab Nebula, the Eye of God and the Horsehead Nebula, among many others.

Officials at the German Aerospace Center's youth portal first commented on this optical illusion, which first appeared on social networking site, Twitter.

Throughout August, Rosetta will map the surface of 67P, orbiting the comet in a triangular trajectory that will allow scientists to gather more data about the comet's shape and gravitational field. The comet's shape is said to resemble that of a rubber duck.

The Rosetta mission was launched in March 2004 from ESA's Guinea Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana in South America.

Rosetta intercepted 67P on August 6 after travelling an astounding four billion miles in humankind's longest space chase to date.

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