Fact Sheet
Last Hurrah
Like a celestial bowling pin, Comet Borrelly slowly tumbles through space in this image from Deep Space 1, which flew past the comet on September 22. The comet's nucleus, which is a chunk of ice mixed with rock, measures about five miles long. Deep Space 1 snapped this image from a distance of about 2,000 miles, and shows features as small as a football field. Ice is vaporizing from the bright patch near the center of the nucleus, spraying a "jet" of gas and dust into space. The encounter was the final major milestone for Deep Space 1, which has used up its maneuvering fuel.
|