This montage shows the only five comets imaged up close with spacecraft. The comets vary in shape and size. Comet Hartley 2 is by far the smallest and the most active of small comets. This jet activity can be seen extending from the comet's surface and into its outer shell of gas and dust, or coma. This is first time scientists have been able to link jets to the details of the surface.
Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
Note: The five visited comets and the spacecraft that visited them are, as shown counter-clockwise in the image, comets 9P/Tempel 1 (Deep Impact), 19P/Borrelly (Deep Space 1), 81P/Wild (Wild 2) (Stardust), 103P/Hartley 2 (Deep Impact/EPOXI), and 1P/Halley (Giotto).
Update: For another photo comparing the sizes of Comets Hartley 2 and Tempel 1, see PIA13629: Tempel 1 and Hartley 2.
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