PIA13578: Closing in on Comet Hartley 2


Closing in on Comet Hartley 2

Caption:

This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1,417 kilometers (880 miles). The sun is to the right.

The comet's nucleus, or main body, is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) at the "neck," or most narrow portion. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus.

Cataloging Keywords:

Name Value Additional Values
Target 103P/Hartley
System Periodic Comets
Target Type Comet
Mission Deep Impact
Instrument Host Deep Impact
Host Type Impactor
Instrument Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI)
Detector
Extra Keywords Grayscale
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2010-11-05
Date in Caption
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13578
Identifier PIA13578