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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).
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Closing in on Comet Hartley 2

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.

Image details

ID#:
PIA13578

Date added:
2010-11-05

Target:
Comet

Mission:
EPOXI

Spacecraft:
Deep Impact (DIXI)

Instruments:
Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI)

Size:
501 x 501 pixels (width x height)

Rating:



Views:
2,052

Full-Res TIFF:
PIA13578.tif (0.25 MB)

Full-Res JPG:
PIA13578.jpg (0.01 MB)

Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD