PIA13625: Icy Particle Spray


Icy Particle Spray

Caption:

Click here for movie clip of PIA13625
Click on the image for the movie clip

This movie made from images obtained by NASA's EPOXI mission spacecraft shows an active end of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2. Icy particles spew from the surface. The specks move as the movie toggles back and forth. Most of these particles are traveling with the nucleus. They are fluffy "snowballs" about 3 centimeters to 30 centimeters (1 inch to 1 foot) across.

The images for the movie were obtained by the Medium Resolution Imager on Nov. 4, 2010, the day the EPOXI mission spacecraft made its closest approach to the comet.

Background Info:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

For more information about EPOXI visit http://www.nasa.gov/epoxi and http://epoxi.umd.edu/ .

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, Movie
Acquisition Date
Release Date 2010-11-18
Date in Caption 2010-11-04
Image Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD/Brown
Source photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13625
Identifier PIA13625