Comet Hartley 2 Close Encounter with Earth 2010

Comet Hartley 2, designated as 103P/Hartley by the Minor Planet Center, is a small periodic comet with an orbital period of 6.46 years. It was discovered by Malcolm Hartley in 1986 at the Schmidt Telescope Unit in Siding Spring, Australia. Its diameter is estimated to be 1.2 to 1.6 kilometres (0.75 to 0.99 mi).
Hartley 2 was the target of a flyby of the Deep Impact spacecraft, as part of the EPOXI mission, on November 4, 2010, which was able to approach within 700 kilometers (430 mi) of Hartley 2 as part of its extended mission. As of November 2010 Hartley 2 is the smallest comet which has been visited. It is the fifth comet visited by spacecraft, and the second comet visited by the Deep Impact spacecraft, which first visited Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005.
NASA's Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe flew past Comet Hartley 2 only 435 miles from the comet's active nucleus on 4 /11/2010 . The spacecraft has since turned its high-gain antenna toward Earth and data are being transmitted to mission control at JPL. Even without processing, the first raw images are spectacular:
At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, mission scientists discussed their first impressions. The comet has a dumbbell shape, they noted, with rough ends and a smooth middle. Jets come from rough terrain and seem to be correlated with specific topographic features. The middle is covered with some kind of fine dusty material that has collected in a topographic low point.
The images reveal a comet bristling with gaseous jets--even on the comet's nightside where volatile ices are temporarily protected from solar heating.
Characteristics:-
Observation by the Spitzer Space Telescope in August 2008 showed the comet nucleus to have a radius of 0.57 ± 0.08 kilometers (0.35 ± 0.050 mi) and a low albedo of 0.028. The mass of the comet is estimated to be about 300 megatonnes (3.0×1011 kg). Barring a catastrophic breakup or major splitting event, the comet should be able to survive up to another 100 apparitions (~700 years) at its current rate of mass loss.
Radar observations by the Arecibo Observatory during the comet's 2010 apparition revealed that the nucleus is highly elongated and rotates over an 18 hour period. The project manager of the EPOXI mission compared its shape to "a cross between a bowling pin and a pickle".
The EPOXI mission flyby showed that the material being ejected from the comet is primarily composed of CO2 gas. Michael A'Hern, the science team leader for the EPOXI mission, stated "Early observations of the comet show that, for the first time, we may be able to connect activity to individual features on the nucleus".
The comet passed within 0.12 astronomical units (18,000,000 km; 11,000,000 mi) of Earth on October 20, 2010, only eight days before coming to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on October 28, 2010. Throughout North America, during early November, the comet will be visible around midnight without interference from the Moon.
Despite its current close passage by Earth's orbit, the comet is not yet a known source of meteor showers. However, that could change. Dust trails from the recent returns of 103P/Hartley 2 move in and out of Earth's orbit, and the 1979-dust trail is expected to hit in 2062 and 2068.
After the 2010 perihelion passage, not accounting for nongravitational forces, Hartley 2 is estimated to come back to perihelion around April 20, 2017.

Discovered by: Malcolm Hartley
Discovery date: 15 March 1986
Alternate designations: 103P/1986 E2
Orbital characteristics A
Aphelion distance: 5.87 AU (Q)
Perihelion distance: 1.05 AU (q)
Semi-major axis: 3.46 AU (a)
Eccentricity: 0.694
Orbital period: 6.46 years
Inclination: 13.6°
Last perihelion: October 28, 2010
Next perihelion: April 20, 2017

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Comet Hartley 2
• Halley's Comet
• Comets
• Meteor
• meteorite
• doomsday
• comet Hale Bopp
• asteroid belt
• asteroids
• Solar System
• planets
• Oort Cloud
• debris of the solar system
• dirty snow balls
• Kurdistan Planetarium
• Kurd
• Kurdistan
• NASA
• ESA

[KurdstanPlanetarium]

@TheSunEast Thank you my dear friend...glad you enjoyed both the music and the video

[TheSunEast]

I enjoy the symphony simply

Brilliant and beautiful is the video

Bravo

ღ Love ღ  Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ

[KurdstanPlanetarium]

@fischer3x3 Thanx...the comet is still around and you might be able to see it with a small binocular if you know where to look , I am sure where you live you have dark night that is required for all Astronomcal observations...

[fischer3x3]

cool