NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine

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Feature: 2011-029 Jan. 26, 2011

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

NASA Comet Hunter Spots Its Valentine

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-029&cid=release_2011-029

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 .

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