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Stunning Comet Close-Ups Released From Fly-By

... All over, the surface of the oblong object, roughly the size of Mt. Everest, is revealed as rolling, pitted terrain marked by grand mesas. No one involved in comet science or the mission that yielded the images expected such variety on the surface of a frozen hunk of ice....

Smooth, rolling plains containing brighter regions are present in the middle of the nucleus and seem to be the source of dust jets seen in the coma.

The rugged land found at both ends of the nucleus has many high ridges along the jagged line between day and night on the comet. Sunlight is coming from the bottom of the frame.

Close-up images also show bright and dark patches that likely represent areas of different chemical composition and physical properties, Yeomans and his colleagues said. The surface of the comet, made of a dark charcoal-like substance, reflects about 4 percent of the sunlight that hits it -- in line with expectations....

From some regions, which appear like smooth plateaus and are lighter, jets of gas and dust can be seen shooting out. Three small jets combine to form what is seen in a more distant image as one large jet shooting outward about 37 miles (60 kilometers).

The jets are not the same as the tails that make comets famous. Tails point away from the Sun, driven outward by the solar wind. The newly spotted jets, however, point nearly toward the Sun and are thought to be created when sunlight burns water and other chemicals from the comet's surface.

The jets are the result of ice sublimating, or turning directly to a gas and evaporating off the comet. The gas carries dust with it, and the dust reflects sunlight and makes the jets visible, the researchers explained.

The jets may be important for future comet missions. Based on observations of comet Halley, researchers have long thought that comets were surrounded by a cloud of dust that might damage a spacecraft. But it's possible, the new observations suggest, that the jets carry some portion of this dust away in a certain direction, leaving much of the environment around some comets relatively dust free....

Researchers said additional data collected by Deep Space 1 will be released in coming weeks, including data of the magnetic field surrounding the nucleus and infrared images that will provide a better view of the comet's composition.

The most highly anticipated release may be some 3-D views that the spacecraft generated as it imaged the comet from different angles on the way by.

"I guarantee you they will blow your mind," Soderblom said....

Deep Space 1 returns stunning images of comet

... Those involved with the mission hailed both the scientific and technical accomplishments of the DS1 flyby of Borrelly. For scientists, it gave them the first detailed look at a distinct class of comets not previously studied up close. About two-thirds of known comets, including Halley, are believed to have come from the Oort Cloud in the distant reaches of the solar system, while the remainder, including Borrelly, come from the less-distant Kuiper Belt. In addition to their different orbits, Halley-class comets have considerable amounts of carbon molecules, such as C2 and C3, in the nuclei, which Borrelly-class comets lack.

The flyby also helps blaze the trail for several other comet missions planned for the coming decade. In November 2003 the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) spacecraft will fly by the comet Encke, and three months later the Stardust spacecraft will fly by Wild 2, collecting samples of comet dust for return to Earth. On July 4, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft will fly by Tempel 1 and release a probe that will crash into the nucleus. In 2006 CONTOUR will fly by another comet, Schwassmann--Wachmann 3. In 2011 ESA's Rosetta spacecraft will perform the first soft landing on a comet nucleus when it touches down on comet Wirtanen.

DS1 showed that flying close to the nucleus of a comet might not be risky as once thought. Mission planners feared that high-speed collisions with dust could damage or disable the spacecraft, but no such encounters were noticed. Because most of Borrelly's dust was concentrated into a set of collimated jets, DS1 was apparently in far less danger than expected, which may bode well for future missions if other comets are like Borrelly....

'Stupendous' comet pictures revealed

... "It's mind-boggling and stupendous," said Dr Laurence Soderblom, the leader of DS1's imaging team. "These pictures have told us that comet nuclei are far more complex than we ever imagined. They have rugged terrain, smooth rolling plains, deep fractures and very, very dark material."

The Comet Borrelly images have thrown up several surprises. As DS1 flew through the coma, the cloud of dust and gas surrounding the nucleus, scientists had expected that the solar wind would flow symmetrically around the cloud, with the nucleus in the centre.

But they found that although the solar wind was indeed flowing symmetrically around the cloud, the nucleus was off to one side, shooting out a great jet of material. "The shock wave is in the wrong place," said Dr Rayman. "We have to understand that...."

There are cross-cutting fractures in the neck of the dumb-bell-shaped nucleus. Jets of material come from the neck, so it seems they are eroding away a saddle of material. Eventually the nucleus could be so weakened that it could carve in two, said one scientist....

NASA Spacecraft Captures Best-Ever View of Comet's Core