NASA's Stardust spacecraft returned new images of a comet showing a scar resulting from the 2005 Deep Impact mission. The images also showed the comet has a fragile and weak nucleus. The spacecraft made its closest approach to comet Tempel 1 on Monday, Feb. 14, at 8:40 p.m. PST (11:40 p.m. EST) at a distance of approximately 178 kilometres (111 miles). Stardust took 72 high-resolution images of the comet. It also accumulated 468 kilobytes of data about the dust in its coma, the cloud that is a comet's atmosphere. The craft is on its second mission of exploration called Stardust-NExT, having completed its prime mission collecting cometary particles and returning them to Earth in 2006. The Stardust-NExT mission met its goals, which included observing surface features that changed in areas previously seen during the 2005 Deep Impact mission; imaging new terrain; and viewing the crater generated when the 2005 mission propelled an impactor at the comet. Read more
Spacecraft Flew Through 'Snowstorm' on Encounter with Comet Hartley 2
On its recent trip by comet Hartley 2, the Deep Impact spacecraft took the first pictures of, and flew through, a storm of fluffy particles of water ice being spewed out by carbon dioxide jets coming from the rough ends of the comet. The resulting images and data shed new light on the nature and composition of comets, according to the University of Maryland-led EPOXI science team, which today announced its latest findings and released the first images of this comet created snowstorm. Read more
NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 18, to discuss new scientific findings from the recent EPOXI mission spacecraft encounter with comet Hartley 2. The news conference will originate from the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW in Washington. It will be carried live on NASA Television. Read more
NASA EPOXI Flyby Reveals New Insights Into Comet Features
NASA's EPOXI mission spacecraft successfully flew past comet Hartley 2 at 10 a.m. EDT Thursday. Scientists say initial images from the flyby provide new information about the comet's volume and material spewing from its surface. Read more
NASA probe photographs peanut-shaped Comet Hartley 2
A repurposed NASA spacecraft swung past Comet Hartley 2 on November 4, snapping detailed photographs such as the one above from just hundreds of kilometres away. Read more
UMD Leads Deep Impact Spacecraft on Successful Flyby of Comet Hartley 2
The University of Maryland-led EPOXI mission successfully flew by comet Hartley 2 at 10 a.m. EDT today, and the spacecraft has begun returning images. Hartley 2 is the fifth comet nucleus visited by any spacecraft and the second one visited by the Deep Impact spacecraft. Scientists and mission controllers are studying never-before-seen images of Hartley 2 appearing on their computer terminal screens. Read more
The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the EPOXI mission's successful flyby of comet Hartley 2:
"NASA extended its pioneering exploration of the solar system today with the successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 by our EPOXI mission. The stunning new images returned of the comet as it zoomed past the spacecraft at a relative speed of more than 27,000 mph are awe inspiring. The images taken and other science collected should help reveal new insights into the origins of our solar system as scientists pore over them in the months and years to come.
This morning, NASAs EPOXI mission whizzed by the comet Hartley 2, coming as near as 450 miles to the comet at 8 a.m. and snapping pictures all the while. Read more