PIA13578: Closing in on Comet Hartley 2
This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT).
 Target Name:  Hartley 2
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  EPOXI 
 Spacecraft:  Deep Impact (DIXI)
 Instrument:  Medium Resolution Instrument (MRI) 
 Product Size:  501 x 501 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  University of Maryland 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA13578.tif (251.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA13578.jpg (5.171 kB)  

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Original Caption Released with Image:

This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1,417 kilometers (880 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

Image Addition Date:
2010-11-05