Surface of young Jupiter family comet 81P/Wild 2: view from the Stardust Spacecraft.
Images taken by the Stardust mission during its flyby of 81P/Wild 2 show the comet to be a 5-kilometer oblate body covered with remarkable topographic features, including unusual circular features that appear to be impact craters. The presence of high-angle slopes shows that the surface is cohesive and self-supporting. The comet does not appear to be a rubble pile, and its rounded shape is not directly consistent with the comet being a fragment of a larger body. The surface is active and yet it retains ancient terrain. Wild 2 appears to be in the early stages of its degradation phase as a small volatile-rich body in the inner solar system.
Brownlee
Donald E
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Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. brownlee@astro.washington.edu
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Friedrich
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Newburn
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Zolensky
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Duxbury
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Sekanina
Zdenek
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Tsou
Peter
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D019443:Cosmic Dust; D005740:Gases; D019110:Meteoroids; D018531:Spacecraft; D014867:Water
D019443:Cosmic Dust; D005740:Gases; D014867:Water