EPOXI

Two intriguing investigations -- One flight-proven spacecraft

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DI Flyby Sees Hartley 2!

Image of 103P/Hartley taken 2010.09.05 by DI S/C and marked with directional pointers.

Caption: This EPOXI mission image, 60 days from Encounter (E-60d) with comet 103P/Hartley 2, is from the first set of Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) observations of the comet through a clear filter. Science Team member Dr. Dennis Wellnitz combined seven successive one-minute exposures to make this single image. The mid-exposure time was 2010/09/05 13:34 UTC.

The comet was 1.28 AU (191 million km) from the Sun and 0.41 AU (61 million km) from the spacecraft (it was closer to Earth than to the spacecraft!). The Sun is straight "down" from the comet and celestial north is to the lower right. The field of view is approximately 310 thousand km at the comet.

Technical Details

Image Parameter	Details
Spacecraft:	Deep Impact Flyby
Instrument:	Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI)
Mid-exposure Date/Time (UTC):	2010/09/05 13:34:10
Filter:	Clear
Exposure:	7 x 60 sec
Pointing:	RA 21^h 26' 21" Dec +34° 43' 37"
Field of View:	approximately 310,000 km at the comet
Solar Elongation:	130°
Solar Phase Angle:	36°
Sun-Comet distance (r):	1.2780 AU (191 million km)
DIF-Comet distance:	0.4049 AU (61 million km)

Table 1: Data about image.

Additional Images:

Image of 103P/Hartley taken 2010.09.05 by DI S/C.

Click for full size image.
This is the same image as above, but without the pointers.

Negative image of 103P/Hartley taken 2010.09.05 by DI S/C.

Click for full size image.
Negative of the same image which makes it a little easier to see the faint coma around the comet.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD

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