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NASA spacecraft woos comet on Valentine's Day
Source: Agencies |
February 15, 2011, Tuesday
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Online Edition
Online Edition
A NASA spacecraft flew by a comet half the size of Manhattan for a nighttime rendezvous on Valentine's Day.
The Stardust craft, speeding at 24,000 mph (38,600 kph), came within 112 miles (180 kilometers) of the surface of comet Tempel 1 yesterday.
Scientists and engineers clapped when they received a signal from Stardust craft that it had snapped six dozen pictures as planned.
It's the first time that a comet has been visited by two different spacecraft. In 2005, another NASA craft named Deep Impact unleashed a copper bullet that carved a crater on Tempel 1.
Scientists plan to study then-and-now images to look for changes on the surface. It'll take several hours for all the pictures and other data from the flyby to reach Earth.
The Stardust craft, speeding at 24,000 mph (38,600 kph), came within 112 miles (180 kilometers) of the surface of comet Tempel 1 yesterday.
Scientists and engineers clapped when they received a signal from Stardust craft that it had snapped six dozen pictures as planned.
It's the first time that a comet has been visited by two different spacecraft. In 2005, another NASA craft named Deep Impact unleashed a copper bullet that carved a crater on Tempel 1.
Scientists plan to study then-and-now images to look for changes on the surface. It'll take several hours for all the pictures and other data from the flyby to reach Earth.
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