NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft has successfully flown past Comet Hartley 2 and is in the process of sending images back to Earth. As promised, NASA has quickly put up five raw (unprocessed) images already received from the spacecraft. If you are reading this blog post now, you can go to NASA TV and watch the press conference being webcast from NASA about the successful flyby.
Comet Hartley 2 can be seen in glorious detail in this image from NASA's EPOXI mission. It was taken as the spacecraft flew by around 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT), from a distance of about 700 kilometers (435 miles). 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. The mission's Medium-Resolution Instrument was used to capture this view. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
