Deep Impact spacecraft readies for comet encounter

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A NASA spacecraft is about to have another close look at a comet. Next week, the Deep Impact spacecraft is set to pass within 435 miles of a half-mile-wide comet named Hartley 2. It will use its telescopes and other instruments to examine the surface and record gas outbursts. (more)...

Scientists Watch for a "Hartley-id" Meteor Shower

This month, Comet Hartley 2 has put on a good show for backyard astronomers. The comet’s vivid green atmosphere and auburn tail of dust look great through small telescopes, and NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI probe is about to return even more dramatic pictures when it flies past the comet’s nucleus on Nov. 4th. (more)...

This image of comet Hartley 2 was captured by amateur astronomer Byron Bergert on Oct. 6 in Gainesville, Florida using a 106 mm Takahashi astrograph. Image credit: Byron Berger