Fact Sheet
A Bumpy Ride
A spacecraft called Stardust will plunge through the "coma" of Comet Wild-2 on Friday, capturing the best-ever pictures of a comet -- along with grains of comet dust. In this artist's concept, Stardust is taking aim at the comet. Heavy bumpers at its front should protect the craft from strikes by high-speed particles of rock carried into space with the streamers of gas from the comet's surface. Both gas and rock are blown into space when heat from the Sun vaporizes some of the comet's ice. This surrounds the comet with a bright cloud of gas (the coma), and creates a tail that can stretch across millions of miles. Stardust should return to Earth with its cargo of comet dust in January 2006, giving scientists their first direct samples of a comet. [Credit: NASA/JPL]
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