Introducing Comet Hartley 2

Comet Hartley 2 can be seen in glorious detail in this image from NASA's EPOXI mission. It was taken as the spacecraft flew by around 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT), from a distance of about 700 kilometers (435 miles). The comet's nucleus, or main body, is approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) long and .4 kilometers (.25 miles) at the "neck," or most narrow portion. This length is equal to the distance between the Capitol building and the Washington Monument in Washington. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus. There are two obvious regions of jet activity associated with rough terrain. The smooth surface in the middle is lower than the rest of the comet and may accumulate fine-grain dust.