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Space Topics: Asteroids and Comets

Stardust's Encounter with Wild 2:
Raw Image Catalog

Stardust was primarily a sample return mission, but its instruments included a navigation camera that took 72 images of the nucleus of comet Wild 2 over a period of less than an hour during the closest moments of the flyby.

During most of this period, the camera alternated between a long and a short exposure. Near closest approach ("c/a") The long exposures of 100 milliseconds tend to wash out or "overexpose" the nucleus, but make Wild 2's faint cometary jets visible. The short exposures of 10 milliseconds reveal the shape of Wild 2's strangely rugged nucleus.

Because the design of the Stardust navigation camera incorporated a scan mirror to project an image of the comet onto the camera's CCD, all of these images are mirror-reversed. Processed versions of the images should appear flipped left-to-right with respect to the raw images.

All images are courtesy of NASA and JPL.

Click to enlarge > N2005WE02 100 ms exposure -1,624 sec from c/a 9,936 km away 593 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2022WE02 100 ms exposure -1,114 sec from c/a 6,817 km away 407 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2034WE02 100 ms exposure -754 sec from c/a 4,616 km away 275 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2041WE02 100 ms exposure -544 sec from c/a 3,334 km away 199 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2044WE02 100 ms exposure -454 sec from c/a 2,785 km away 166 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2046WE02 100 ms exposure -394 sec from c/a 2,419 km away 144 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2048WE02 100 ms exposure -334 sec from c/a 2,054 km away 123 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2050WE02 100 ms exposure -284 sec from c/a 1,751 km away 104 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2052WE02 100 ms exposure -214 sec from c/a 1,328 km away 79 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2053WE02 10 ms exposure -204 sec from c/a 1,268 km away 76 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2054WE02 100 ms exposure -194 sec from c/a 1,208 km away 72 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2055WE02 10 ms exposure -184 sec from c/a 1,148 km away 68 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2056WE02 100 ms exposure -174 sec from c/a 1,088 km away 65 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2057WE02 10 ms exposure -164 sec from c/a 1,028 km away 61 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2058WE02 100 ms exposure -154 sec from c/a 969 km away 58 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2059WE02 10 ms exposure -144 sec from c/a 910 km away 54 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2060WE02 100 ms exposure -134 sec from c/a 851 km away 51 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2061WE02 10 ms exposure -124 sec from c/a 792 km away 47 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2062WE02 100 ms exposure -114 sec from c/a 734 km away 44 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2063WE02 10 ms exposure -104 sec from c/a 676 km away 40 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2064WE02 100 ms exposure -94 sec from c/a 619 km away 37 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2065WE02 10 ms exposure -84 sec from c/a 563 km away 34 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2066WE02 100 ms exposure -74 sec from c/a 508 km away 30 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2067WE02 10 ms exposure -64 sec from c/a 455 km away 27 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2068WE02 100 ms exposure -54 sec from c/a 404 km away 24 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2069WE02 10 ms exposure -44 sec from c/a 356 km away 21 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2070WE02 100 ms exposure -34 sec from c/a 313 km away 19 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2071WE02 10 ms exposure -24 sec from c/a 277 km away 17 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2072WE02 100 ms exposure -14 sec from c/a 251 km away 15 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2073WE02 10 ms exposure -4 sec from c/a 238 km away 14 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2074WE02 100 ms exposure +6.5 sec from c/a 240 km away 14 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2075WE02 10 ms exposure +16.4 sec from c/a 257 km away 15 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2076WE02 100 ms exposure +26.4 sec from c/a 287 km away 17 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2077WE02 10 ms exposure +36.5 sec from c/a 325 km away 19 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2078WE02 100 ms exposure +46.4 sec from c/a 370 km away 22 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2079WE02 10 ms exposure +56.4 sec from c/a 419 km away 25 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2080WE02 100 ms exposure +66.4 sec from c/a 470 km away 28 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2081WE02 10 ms exposure +76.5 sec from c/a 524 km away 31 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2082WE02 100 ms exposure +86.4 sec from c/a 579 km away 35 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2083WE02 10 ms exposure +96.5 sec from c/a 636 km away 38 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2084WE02 100 ms exposure +106 sec from c/a 693 km away 41 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2085WE02 10 ms exposure +116 sec from c/a 751 km away 45 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2086WE02 100 ms exposure +126 sec from c/a 809 km away 48 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2087WE02 10 ms exposure +136 sec from c/a 868 km away 52 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2088WE02 100 ms exposure +146 sec from c/a 927 km away 55 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2089WE02 10 ms exposure +156 sec from c/a 986 km away 59 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2090WE02 100 ms exposure +166 sec from c/a 1,045 km away 62 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2091WE02 10 ms exposure +176 sec from c/a 1,105 km away 66 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2092WE02 100 ms exposure +186 sec from c/a 1,165 km away 69 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2093WE02 10 ms exposure +196 sec from c/a 1,225 km away 73 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2094WE02 100 ms exposure +206 sec from c/a 1,285 km away 77 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2095WE02 10 ms exposure +216 sec from c/a 1,345 km away 80 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2096WE02 100 ms exposure +226 sec from c/a 1,405 km away 84 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2097WE02 10 ms exposure +236 sec from c/a 1,466 km away 87 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2098WE02 100 ms exposure +246 sec from c/a 1,526 km away 91 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2099WE02 10 ms exposure +256 sec from c/a 1,586 km away 95 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2100WE02 100 ms exposure +266 sec from c/a 1,647 km away 98 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2101WE02 10 ms exposure +276 sec from c/a 1,708 km away 102 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2102WE02 100 ms exposure +286 sec from c/a 1,768 km away 105 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2103WE02 10 ms exposure +296 sec from c/a 1,829 km away 109 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2104WE02 35 ms exposure +306 sec from c/a 1,889 km away 113 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2105WE02 10 ms exposure +316 sec from c/a 1,950 km away 116 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2106WE02 35 ms exposure +326 sec from c/a 2,011 km away 120 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2107WE02 10 ms exposure +336 sec from c/a 2,072 km away 124 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2108WE02 35 ms exposure +346 sec from c/a 2,132 km away 127 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2109WE02 10 ms exposure +356 sec from c/a 2,193 km away 131 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2110WE02 35 ms exposure +366 sec from c/a 2,254 km away 134 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2111WE02 10 ms exposure +376 sec from c/a 2,315 km away 138 m/pixel
Click to enlarge > N2112WE02 35 ms exposure +386 sec from c/a 2,376 km away 142 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2113WE02 100 ms exposure +436 sec from c/a 2,680 km away 160 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2114WE02 100 ms exposure +506 sec from c/a 3,106 km away 185 m/pixel	Click to enlarge > N2115WE02 100 ms exposure +566 sec from c/a 3,472 km away 207 m/pixel

These images were retrieved from the Small Bodies Node of the Planetary Data System. The contrast was uniformly adjusted across all images to set the background color to be nearly black.