Saturday, November 6, 2010

Closer view of 103P/Hartley 2 - not from my backyard this time!

It's always fun when you observe something from your little backyard observatory and a few weeks later, see the object again from a spacecraft.  Just the other day, this happened again.  Comet Hartley 2 which I had imaged a few weeks ago was visited by the Deep Impact (EPOXI) spacecraft and got a close view of this peanut shaped object.  The comet is only 1.5 miles long, and the smallest so far visited by a spacecraft.
Put on your red/blue glasses and see this animation in 3d.

(Thanks for always posting this great stuff Emily!)

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