This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken at 7:01 a.m. PDT (10:01 a.m. EDT), after NASA's EPOXI mission flew by. The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1406 kilometers (874 miles). The sun is to the right.
This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken at 7:01 a.m. PDT (10:01 a.m. EDT), after NASA’s EPOXI mission flew by. The spacecraft’s Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1406 kilometers (874 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 credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD