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NASA's Stunning Close-Up Photos of Comet Hartley 2

Posted by Soulskill on from the for-sufficiently-distant-values-of-close dept.

Several readers have sent word that NASA's EPOXI spacecraft performed a close approach to comet Hartley 2 yesterday, taking pictures within roughly 700km of the nucleus. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has a collection of some fantastic photographs, and you can check out a ton of other images on the mission website. The Planetary Society blog put together a neat animation of the flyby. NASA's mission fact sheet (PDF) explains EPOXI's background — it's the supplemental mission of the Deep Impact craft that smashed a small probe into a different comet back in 2005 — and why Hartley 2 was chosen for this flyby (they couldn't find their original target).

1 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. Similar to photos in my toilet bowl .. by fkx · · Score: -1, Troll

    Maybe I will post them for analysis and praise.

    And funding.