Hubble Probes Comet 103P/Hartley 2 in Preparation for DIXI/EPOXI Flyby

Hubble Space Telescope observations of comet 103P/Hartley 2, taken on September 25, are helping in the planning for a November 4 flyby of the comet by NASA's Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI) on NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft performing the EPOXI mission.

Analysis of the new Hubble data shows that the nucleus has a diameter of approximately 0.93 miles (1.5 kilometers), which is consistent with previous estimates.

About the colours

This image was originally black and white and recorded only overall brightness. These brightness values were translated into a range of bluish hues. Such color "maps" can be useful in helping to distinguish subtly varying brightness in an image.

About the data

This image was created from HST data from proposal 12312 : H. Weaver (JHU/APL), M. A’Hearn (University of Maryland, College Park), N. Dello Russo (JHU/APL), P. Feldman (Johns Hopkins University), and S.A. Stern (Southwest Research Institute)