spacetoday.net: EPOXI flies past comet Hartley 2

Posted: Fri, Nov 5, 2010, 7:31 AM ET (1131 GMT)
Hartley 2 nucleus image from EPOXI (NASA)

NASA's EPOXI mission provided scientists with the first close-up views of the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 on Thursday, revealing a small, elongated body similar in shape to a bone or peanut. The spacecraft, launched in 2005 as Deep Impact to fly past comet Tempel 1 later that year, passed about 700 kilometers from the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 at 10 am EDT (1400 GMT) Thursday. Images returned by the spacecraft revealed an elongated nucleus about 2 kilometers long, with clumps of material littering the surface at both nodes, but a relatively smooth middle region. The spacecraft will be returning data for several more weeks. EPOXI takes is name from a combination of two extended missions performed by the spacecraft since its 2005 Tempel 1 flyby: the Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh) and Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI).