Seeing the Snowball!
Hi-Res GIF (171 KB)
The heart of a comet is very hard to see. When comets are close to the sun and Earth, they are usually cloaked in a cloud of dust and gas that hides the nucleus. When the comet is far from the sun, the comet is harder to see. As the Deep Impact spacecraft approaches Tempel 1, it has been taking images of the comet. But until now, only the coma has been visible. With some very careful analysis, Dr. Carey Lisse (JHUAPL) and the Deep Impact science team has been able to detect the nucleus of the comet.
CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
