[meteorite-list] NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine (Stardust)

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:19:59 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201101270119.p0R1JxTj027760_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-029
  
NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 26, 2011

NASA's Stardust spacecraft has downlinked its first images of comet
Tempel 1, the target of a flyby planned for Valentine's Day, Feb. 14.
The images were taken on Jan. 18 and 19 from a distance of 26.3 million
kilometers (16.3 million miles), and 25.4 million kilometers (15.8
million miles) respectively. On Feb. 14, Stardust will fly within about
200 kilometers (124 miles) of the comet's nucleus.

"This is the first of many images to come of comet Tempel 1," said Joe
Veverka, principal investigator of NASA's Stardust-NExT mission from
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "Encountering something as small and
fast as a comet in the vastness of space is always a challenge, but we
are very pleased with how things are setting up for our Valentine's Day
flyby."

The composite image is a combination of several images taken by
Stardust's navigation camera. Future images will be used to help mission
navigators refine Stardust's trajectory, or flight path, as it closes
the distance between comet and spacecraft at a rate of about 950,000
kilometers (590,000 miles) a day. On the night of encounter, the
navigation camera will be used to acquire 72 high-resolution images of
the comet's surface features. Stardust-NExT mission scientists will use
these images to see how surface features on comet Tempel 1 have changed
over the past five-and-a-half years. (Tempel 1 had previously been
visited and imaged in July of 2005 by NASA's Deep Impact mission).

Launched on Feb. 7, 1999, Stardust became the first spacecraft in
history to collect samples from a comet (comet Wild 2), and return them
to Earth for study. While its sample return capsule parachuted to Earth
in January 2006, mission controllers were placing the still-viable
spacecraft on a path that would allow NASA the opportunity to re-use the
already-proven flight system if a target of opportunity presented
itself. In January 2007, NASA re-christened the mission "Stardust-NExT"
(New Exploration of Tempel), and the Stardust team began a
four-and-a-half year journey for the spacecraft to comet Tempel 1. This
will be the second exploration of Tempel 1 by a spacecraft (Deep Impact).

Along with the high-resolution images of the comet's surface,
Stardust-NExT will also measure the composition, size distribution and
flux of dust emitted into the coma, and provide important new
information on how Jupiter-family comets evolve and how they formed 4.6
billion years ago.

Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation
of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
Stardust-NExT for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.
Joe Veverka of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is the mission's
principal investigator. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the
spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.

For more information about Stardust-NExT, please visit:
http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov .

DC Agle (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

2011-029
Received on Wed 26 Jan 2011 08:19:59 PM PST