PIA13853: Comet Tempel 1 as Seen by NASA's Stardust
 Target Name:  Tempel 1
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  StardustNExT
 Spacecraft:  Stardust
 Instrument:  Stardust Navigation Camera
 Product Size:  1024 x 1024 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  Cornell University 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA13853.tif (1.05 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA13853.jpg (12.94 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:

NASA's Stardust-NExT mission transmitted the first image it took during its approach to comet Tempel 1 at 8:35 p.m. PST (11:35 p.m. EST) on Feb. 14, 2011. The comet was first visited by NASA's Deep Impact mission in 2005.

Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

For more information about Stardust-NExT, please visit http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Image Addition Date:
2011-02-15