Summary

Description	NASA’s Stardust spacecraft has gathered dozens of images from its January fly-by of Comet Wild 2. (Pronounced Vilt 2). The spacecraft came within 147 miles of the comet taking the most detailed pictures ever captured. The pictures revealed a rugged surface of canyons, hundreds of feet deep, towering pinnacles over 300 feet high and violent spewing jets. During its closest fly-by, Stardust was bombarded by millions of space particles from the jets. The spacecraft flew safely through the debris protected by shields that saved it from the high-speed collision of cometary particles and rocks. Stardust is now making its way back to Earth after collecting thousands of space samples that are securely stowed in a special capsule. The sample return capsule is expected to make a soft landing in the Utah desert in January 2006.
Date	2004-06-25
Source	images.nasa.gov

Licensing

Public Domain (US Government Work)