PIA05571: Comet Wild 2 Up Close and Personal
 Target Name:  Wild 2
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Stardust
 Spacecraft:  Stardust
 Instrument:  Stardust Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  390 x 352 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA05571.tif (91.63 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA05571.jpg (6.664 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

On January 2, 2004 NASA's Stardust spacecraft made a close flyby of comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt-2"). Among the equipment the spacecraft carried on board was a navigation camera. This is the 34th of the 72 images taken by Stardust's navigation camera during close encounter. The exposure time was 10 milliseconds. The two frames are actually of 1 single exposure. The frame on the left depicts the comet as the human eye would see it. The frame on the right depicts the same image but "stretched" so that the faint jets emanating from Wild 2 can be plainly seen. Comet Wild 2 is about five kilometers (3.1 miles) in diameter.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2004-01-02