HiRISE (The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment of NASA's MRO) Beams Back Images of Comet's Tiny Nucleus
One news item Link:
http://news.discovery.com/space/astrono ... 141020.htm
Few tidbits:
It has also becom
e the first ever mission to photograph a long-period comet’s pristine nucleus on its first foray into the inner solar system.
These first HiRISE observations, astronomers have determined that the icy nucleus at the comet’s core is much smaller than originally thought. (Half of 700 meters what they thought before)
The two observations showcased above are the best two from the HiRISE campaign. The top thumbnails represent images with the full dynamic range, including the nucleus and coma. Comets are composed of a central icy lump of material — the nucleus — and when the comet becomes heated by solar energy, ices sublime, blasting vapor and dust into space. During this process, the coma forms and the solar wind will sweep some of the vapor and dust into a tail.
The larger bottom images are overexposed photos where the coma has been brightened so astronomers can fully appreciate its extent. The nucleus in these images cannot be seen. The time between left and right images is approximately 9 minutes.
This is the first time that a “fresh” comet from the Oort Cloud has been observed up-close.
HiRISE’s observation comes hot on the tail of NASA rover Opportunity’s surface image of Siding Spring shown below.(The fuzzy object in the center of this raw and unprocessed image)
Still waiting for spectrometer findings... (MoM detects CH4 type news)..
Per news - MOM team is eagerly awaiting the data about the comet (expected to be downloaded from Monday night on wards.) The
MCC has taken a photo of the comet and the Methane Sensor For Mars also did it's thing.
