Hubble Space Telescope observations of comet 103P/Hartley 2, taken on September 25, are helping in the planning for a November 4 flyby of the comet by NASA's Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) on NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft performing the EPOXI mission.
Analysis of the new Hubble data shows that the nucleus has a diameter of approximately 0.93 miles (1.5 kilometers), which is consistent with previous estimates.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and H. Weaver (The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Lab)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Comet 103/P Hartley 2 |
| Object Description | Comet |
| Distance | At the time of the Hubble observation, the comet was 1.153 astronomical units (172 million km or 107 million miles) from the Sun. The comet was 0.218 astronomical units (32.6 million km or 20.2 million miles) from Earth. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal : H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. A’Hearn (University of Maryland, College Park), N. Dello Russo (JHU/APL), P. Feldman (Johns Hopkins University), and S.A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute) |
| Instrument | HST>STIS/CCD |
| Exposure Dates | Sept. 25, 2010 |
| Filters | F28x50LP |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image. |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
