In Depth | 1P/Halley – NASA Solar System Exploration
Comet Halley moves backward (opposite to Earth's motion) around the Sun in a plane tilted 18 degrees to that of the Earth's orbit. Halley's backward, or retrograde, motion is unusual among short-period comets, as its greatest distance from the Sun (aphelion) is beyond the orbit of Neptune. Halley's orbit period is, on average, 76 Earth years.
A Night to Remember: The Giotto Flyby of Halley's Comet
2001年3月14日 · Exactly 15 years after the intrepid Giotto spacecraft swept past the nucleus of Halley's Comet, ESA scientist Gerhard Schwehm shared his memories of past triumphs while looking forward to new revelations from the Rosetta mission.
Comet Hale-Bopp - NASA Solar System Exploration
On July 23, 1995, an unusually bright comet outside of Jupiter's orbit (7.15 AU!) was discovered independently by Alan Hale, New Mexico and Thomas Bopp, Arizona. The new comet, designated C/1995 O1, is the farthest comet ever discovered by amateurs and appeared 1000 times brighter than Comet Halley did at the same distance.
Stardust - NASA's Comet Sample Return Mission - NASA Solar …
NASA scientists have discovered glycine, a fundamental building block of life, in samples of comet Wild 2 returned by NASA's Stardust spacecraft. Stardust sample return capsule will join the collection of flight icons in the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
Why Comets Are Important - NASA Solar System Exploration
2000年6月7日 · What Are Comets? * Comets are small, fragile, irregularly shaped bodies composed of a mixture of grains and frozen gases. They have highly elliptical orbits that repeatedly bring them very close to the Sun and then swing them deeply into space, often beyond the orbit of Pluto.
Stephen Edberg | Astronomer (Retired) - NASA Solar System …
I enjoyed preparing all levels of outreach materials and working with people interested in Halley's Comet and, of course, observing it and other comets myself. It was great to be a part of the Galileo project. A group of us were among the first to see the surface of an asteroid.
Asteroids, Comets & Meteors - NASA Solar System Exploration
Asteroids and comets – and the meteors that sometimes come from them – are leftovers from the formation of our solar system 4.6 billion years ago.
Stardust | JPL | NASA - NASA Solar System Exploration
2003年11月26日 · Stardust will be not only the first US mission to a comet, but the first robotic return of cometary dust and volatile samples. Stardust is the culmination of more than a decade's quest for a comet coma sample return mission. The scientific value of having actual bona-fide comet samples in hand cannot be overestimated.
In Coming Apart, Comet LINEAR Exposes its Deepest Secrets
2001年5月17日 · Comet LINEAR completely disintegrated late last July as it made its closest approach to the Sun, at a cozy 71 million miles. Hubble tracked the comet, finding at least 16 fragments that resembled "mini-comets" with tails. Now LINEAR is little more than a trail of debris orbiting the Sun.
In Depth | Kuiper Belt – NASA Solar System Exploration
These two multiple-exposure images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show Kuiper Belt objects, or KBOs, against a background of stars in the constellation Sagittarius. The two KBOs are roughly 4 billion miles from Earth. Image Credits: NASA, ESA, SwRI, JHU/APL, New Horizons KBO Search Team.