The second image of Comet Wild 2 from NASA's Stardust spacecraft shows a distant side view of the roughly spherical comet nucleus. Taken as Stardust approached comet after a 2 billion mile journey, the photo reveals one hemisphere in sunlight and the other in shadow, similar to a view of the quarter moon from Earth.
The second image of Comet Wild 2 from NASA’s Stardust spacecraft shows a distant side view of the roughly spherical comet nucleus. Taken as Stardust approached comet after a 2 billion mile journey, the photo reveals one hemisphere in sunlight and the other in shadow, similar to a view of the quarter moon from Earth. On January 2, Stardust flew within 240 kilometers (149 miles) of the comet, catching particles to return to Earth in early 2006. For more on Stardust, visit http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/.
Photo Credit: NASA/JPL