Surface of young Jupiter family comet 81 P/Wild 2: View from the Stardust spacecraft

Brownlee, Donald E.; Horz, Friedrich; Newburn, Ray L.; Zolensky, Michael; Duxbury, Thomas C.; Sandford, Scott; Sekanina, Zdenek; Tsou, Peter; Hanner, Martha S.; Clark, Benton C.; Green, Simon F. and Kissel, Jochen (2004). Surface of young Jupiter family comet 81 P/Wild 2: View from the Stardust spacecraft. Science, 304(5678) pp. 1764–1769.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1097899

Abstract

Images taken by the Stardust mission during its flyby of 81P/Wild 2 show the comet to be a 5-kilometer oblate body covered with remarkable topographic features, including unusual circular features that appear to be impact craters. The presence of high-angle slopes shows that the surface is cohesive and self-supporting. The comet does not appear to be a rubble pile, and its rounded shape is not directly consistent with the comet being a fragment of a larger body. The surface is active and yet it retains ancient terrain. Wild 2 appears to be in the early stages of its degradation phase as a small volatile-rich body in the inner solar system.

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