Flying Past Comet Hartley 2

There are simply too many good photos of Comet Hartley 2 to use on a day-by-day basis, so The Minister is going to do some multi-photo posts of the comet for the next day or two in addition to the regularly scheduled posts.

The Minister must say, he's rather surprised that the public reaction to the rendezvous with the comet has been so lackluster so far. The Deep Impact spacecraft has taken some excellent photos of an active comet, and the world has hardly noticed. Such a pity.

The image, one of the closest taken of Comet Hartley 2 by NASA's EPOXI mission, shows many features across the comet's surface. The length of the comet is equal to the distance between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument in Washington. There are two obvious regions of jet activity associated with rough terrain. The smooth surface in the middle is lower than the rest of the comet and may accumulate fine-grain dust.

The image was taken by EPOXI's Medium-Resolution Instrument on November 4, 2010. The Sun is to the right.

This close-up view of Comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:58 a.m. PDT (9:58 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1,417 kilometers (880 miles). The Sun is to the right.

The comet's nucleus, or main body, is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) at the "neck," or most narrow portion. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus.

This close-up view of Comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA's EPOXI mission approached the comet at 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 816 kilometers (507 miles). The Sun is to the right.

This close-up view of Comet Hartley 2 was taken at 7:00 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT), after NASA's EPOXI mission flew by. The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 849 kilometers (528 miles). The Sun is to the right.

This close-up view of Comet Hartley 2 was taken at 7:01 a.m. PDT (10:01 a.m. EDT), after NASA's EPOXI mission flew by. The spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument snapped the picture from a distance of 1406 kilometers (874 miles). The Sun is to the right.

Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD; Links for photos: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth.

Update: NASA has released an animation of the comet as the Deep Impact spacecraft flew by Comet Hartley 2 the other day. Someone has downloaded the video on to Youtube, which I'm adding below: