Caption: This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission flew by at 7:01 a.m. PDT (10:01 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1406 kilometers (874 miles).
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. The sun is to the right.
This EPOXI mission image of comet 103P/Hartley 2 was taken 99 seconds after Time of Closest Approach (TCA) using the Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) and a clear filter. The mid-exposure time was 2010/11/04 14:01 UTC.
Image Parameter | Details |
Spacecraft: | Deep Impact Flyby |
Instrument: | Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) |
Mid-exposure Date/Time (UTC): | 2010/11/04 14:01 |
Filter: | Clear |
Exposure: | 0.04 sec |
Pointing: | |
Field of View: | |
Solar Elongation: | |
Solar Phase Angle: | |
Sun-Comet distance (r): | |
DIF-Comet distance: | (~1406 km) |
Table 1: Data about image.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD