Mission NASA’s Stardust-Next comet Tempel 1 and meet each other in space, right on Valentine’s Day, 14 February. Although not intersect, a meeting between them will be very close.
Stardust-Next meeting with Tempel 1 was a meeting of the second spacecraft to the comet on July 4, 2005 after then. At that time, the aircraft from NASA’s Deep Impact managed a sensor toward Tempel 1 while watching him when passing.
Deep Impact took the photos and drop tool for researchers to collect comet dust was flying in a collision. Stardust-Next, the mission that launched 4.5 years ago served to expand the investigation conducted by the Deep Impact. NASA says it will most likely be the last for the spacecraft, which, after a nearly 3.7 billion miles in space, because it has almost run out of fuel.
Since then, the comet has made one full orbit around the sun. NASA said Stardust-Next will take 72 new photos Tempel 1 to help determine what changes and where the comet while the solar sail. The result is expected to reveal more information about the solar system. Mission’s principal investigator, said the photographs would give “new understanding” about the fundamental questions about how comets work.
“Stardust-Next have started sending pictures of the comet taken on January 18, from a distance of 26.2 million miles and 19 January from a distance of 25.4 million kilometers,” said Joe Veverka, a scientist from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California, United States . As reported Upi, on 14 February next, Stardust-Next will fly a distance of only 199.5 kilometers with a comet. “We have received the first pictures around the comet Tempel 1,” said Veverka.
“Meeting spacecraft with celestial bodies are so small and quick like a comet in space is a vast challenge, but we are glad all are well prepared,” he said. Comet Tempel 1 comet itself is measuring 7.6 x 4.9 kilometers. He orbits the Sun with a period of 5.52 years. Called Tempel 1 because it was first discovered by Wilhelm Tempel, an astronomer who worked in France on April 3, 1867.