The Project Gutenberg eBook, Images of Comet Wild 2, by NASA

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Title: Images of Comet Wild 2

Author: NASA

Release Date: August 2, 2004 [eBook #13082]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IMAGES OF COMET WILD 2***

Thanks to David Reed for sending us these files.

NASA Spacecraft Reveals Surprising Anatomy Of A Comet
06.17.04

Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust
spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world
than previously believed. The comet's rigid surface, dotted
with towering pinnacles, plunging craters, steep cliffs, and
dozens of jets spewing violently, has surprised scientists.

Image above: This image and diagram show the comet Wild 2,
which NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by on Jan. 2, 2004. The
picture on the left is the closest short exposure of the
comet. The listed names on the right are those used by the
Stardust team to identify features. "Basin" does not imply an
impact origin.

Animation: This movie strings together a series of still
images of comet Wild 2 taken during Stardust's historic flyby
of the comet. Animation credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

"We thought Comet Wild 2 would be like a dirty, black, fluffy
snowball," said Stardust Principal Investigator Dr. Donald
Brownlee of the University of Washington, Seattle. "Instead,
it was mind-boggling to see the diverse landscape in the first
pictures from Stardust, including spires, pits and craters,
which must be supported by a cohesive surface."

Stardust gathered the images on Jan. 2, 2004, when it flew 236
kilometers (about 147 miles) from Wild 2. The flyby yielded
the most detailed, high-resolution comet images ever.

"We know Wild 2 has features sculpted by many processes. It
may turn out to be typical of other comets, but it is unlike
any other type of solar system body," Brownlee said. He is
lead author of one of four Stardust papers appearing in the
Fri., June 18, issue of Science. "We're fortunate that nature
gave us such a rich object to study."

Stardust images show pinnacles 100 meters tall (328 feet), and
craters more than 15