Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
Going Wild
Explanation:
Dynamic jets of gas and dust surround one of the most active [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] planetary surfaces in the solar system in this wild-looking picture [ http://stardust.jpl…] of a comet nucleus [ http://www.solarvie…]. The comet's designation [ http://nssdc.gsfc.n…cometfact.html ] is 81P/Wild 2 of course (sounds like "vilt 2"), and the picture is a composite of two images recorded by the Stardust spacecraft's [ http://stardust.jpl…] navigation camera during its January 2nd flyby [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. The composited images consist of a short exposure recording startling surface details of Wild 2's nucleus and a longer exposure, taken 10 seconds later, revealing material streaming from the surface. The left edge of the nucleus appears extremely jagged due to a strong shadow. Pitted and eroded after billions of years of outgassing [ http://www.windows.…comet_nucleus.html&e du=high ] and meteorite impacts, the nucleus pictured is only about 5 kilometers in diameter, while the jets of dust and gas ultimately leave trails [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] millions of kilometers long. Stardust is scheduled to return samples of Wild 2's cometary dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…], picked up during the flyby, to Earth in January 2006.
Credit and Copyright:
Stardust Team [ http://stardust.jpl…], JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov…]
facet_when:
January 2006
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_where:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)
facet_what:
Earth
facet_what:
COMETS
facet_what:
Stardust
facet_what:
Navigation Camera (NC)
facet_when_year:
2006
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap040319

Going Wild
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