Good morning,
Today’s forecast for the Whippet City calls for a mostly sunny day, with a high temperature of forty-two degrees.
It’s the end of the first quarter in our school district. It’s also Eagle Day and Spirit Day at Washington School today.
NASA sent a spacecraft to fly close to comet Hartley 2, to photograph and study the comet. The mission has been, apparently, a great success, and both photographs and video of the close encounter are available.
Here’s a photo of Hartley 2, with the caption that NASA issued —
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. Jets can be seen streaming out of the nucleus.
Here’s a video, with NASA caption, taken from a greater distance —
This movie, taken by the spacecraft’s High-Resolution Instrument, shows jets spraying out of comet Hartley 2 as the comet tumbles through space.