Spacecraft sends back images of comet's cratered nucleus

By The Associated Press

	AP/NASA, JPL The nucleus of comet Wild 2 is shown in this image taken by the Stardust navigation camera during the spacecraft's closest approach to the comet Friday.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA yesterday said it has captured dozens of close-up images of a distant comet that show the frozen ball of rock and ice spewing jets of dust and gas into space.

The Stardust spacecraft took 72 images of the nucleus of comet Wild 2 on Friday during a flyby 242 million miles from Earth.

Scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory began poring over the black-and-white images as the pictures and other scientific data reached Earth yesterday.

Initial analysis revealed as many as seven jets shooting from the comet, project manager Tom Duxbury said.

The images cover about 40 percent of the surface of Wild 2, which appears pocked with sinkholes formed where scientists believe the comet has lost material through sublimation — solids turning to gas without an intermediate liquid phase.

NASA said it would release more images of the egg-shaped, 3.3-mile diameter comet tomorrow or Tuesday. The agency has released a single black-and-white photo of the comet nucleus.

The spacecraft also collected dust and gas samples from the comet and is scheduled to jettison them to Earth in January 2006.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company