A stunning close-up photo of Comet Hartley 2 from the Nov. 4, 2010 flyby performed by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. This close-up view of comet Hartley 2 was captured by the spacecraft's Medium-Resolution Instrument.
This is another of the first images sent back to Earth from the NASA's EPOXI mission after it flew by Comet Hartley 2 around 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT) on Nov. 4, 2010.
This is how Comet Hartley 2 might appear in the eyepiece of a large amateur telescope. Located about eight degrees (16 full moon diameters) away from the bright star Procyon as it leaves the constellation Gemini, Comet Hartley will be best viewed high in the sky just before dawn.
Measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory show that comet Hartley 2, which comes from the distant Kuiper Belt, contains water with the same chemical signature as water in Earth's oceans. The findings may help explain how Earth’s surface ended up covered in water.
An artist's conception illustrates a close-up look at NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. NASA is now evaluating future uses for this spacecraft.
This NASA EPOXI mission image shows the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 with overlaid spectra of the "normal" and "heavy" water, as observed with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infraredaboard Europe's Herschel Space Observatory.
This is one of the first images sent back to Earth from the NASA's EPOXI mission after it flew by Comet Hartley 2 around 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT) on Nov. 4, 2010.
This image montage shows Comet Hartley 2 as NASA's EPOXI mission approached and flew under the comet. The images progress in time clockwise, starting at top left.
Malcolm Hartley discovered Comet Hartley 2 back in 1986. On Nov. 4, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will make a close flyby of the comet, coming within a mere 435 miles (700 kilometers).
Hubble Space Telescope observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2, taken on Sept. 25, 2010, are helping in the planning for a Nov. 4 flyby of the comet by the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) on NASA's EPOXI spacecraft.
This video shows the view from NASA\'s EPOXI/Deep Impact spacecraft during its flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010.
Twelve radar images of the nucleus of Comet Hartley 2, taken by the Arecibo Observatory from Oct. 25 to 27, 2010.
Discovery image of Comet Hartley 2, which Malcolm Hartley found in 1986.
Comet Hartley 2 was still too faint to be seen with the unaided eye when it was captured in this photograph at a distance of about 18 million miles from Earth on Sept. 28, 2010 by NASA astronomer Bill Cooke.
These two fireballs with orbits similar to the comet Hartley 2 were observed on Oct. 16. 2010 by cameras in western Ontario (left) and the southeastern USA (right). The fireballs may have been caused by meteors from the comet.
NASA's Deep Impact probe took this image of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 2, 2010, from a distance of 2.3 million kilometers (1.4 million miles). The white blob and the halo around it are the comet's outer cloud of gas and dust, called a coma. At this distance, the spacecraft captures images with a resolution of about 23 kilometers/pixel (14 miles/pixel).
Comet Hartley 2\'s path on the sky makes it appear especially close to the Moon on October 28th 2010.
