images

Comet Hartley 2 nucleus seen by Deep impact spacecraft

by

Nasa/JPL/UMD/Novapix

Reference

a-com09-00003

Date

2010-11-10

Comet Hartley 2 can be seen in glorious detail in this image from NASA's EPOXI mission. It was taken as the spacecraft flew by around at 7:00 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT on november 4 2010, from a distance of about 849 kilometers (528 miles). The comet's nucleus, or main body, is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and 0.4 kilometers (0.25 miles) at the "neck," or most narrow portion. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus. The sun is to the right.