Comet-Hunting Probe Snaps Photo of Its Prey
Forty-nine days before its historic rendezvous with a comet, NASA’s Stardust spacecraft successfully photographed its quarry, comet Wild 2, from 15.5 million miles away.
The image, the first of many over the next four weeks, will aid Stardust’s navigators and scientists as they work toward a Jan. 2 fly-by and collection of samples from Wild 2.
The ball of dirty ice and rock, about as big as three Brooklyn Bridges laid end to end, was detected Nov. 13 by the spacecraft’s navigation camera. Researchers did not expect to see the comet for two more weeks.
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