Comet 103/P Hartley 2

This first image of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 was taken from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft 60 days prior to the spacecraft's flyby of the comet.

Seven successive one-minute exposures taken by the spacecraft's Medium Resolution Imager were combined to make this single image. The exposures were taken on September 5th beginning at about 6:30 a.m. PDT (9:30 a.m. EDT, 13:30 UTC). The comet was 60 million kilometers (37.2 million miles) from the spacecraft when the set of images were taken.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland

Update (27 October 2010): NASA has released three videos with respect to the upcoming rendezvous with Comet Hartley 2:
PIA13546: EPOXI's Trip to Meet Comet Hartley 2 - A video showing the orbital trajectories of the Earth, Comet Hartley 2 and the Deep Impact spacecraft.
PIA13547: Hartley 2 on the Move - A time lapse animation of the comet by Deep Impact as the spacecraft gets nearer (from 21 million kilometers on October 15th to just under 12 million kilometers on October 24th).
PIA13548: Comet Hartley 2 Gets a Visitor - An artist's animation showing the flyby of Deep Impact past the comet from the spacecraft's perspective.