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The sample return capsule from NASA's Stardust spacecraft, launched on February 7, 1999, landed at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training range at 3:10am (1010 GMT) on Sunday, January 15, 2005. Stardust traveled to Comet Wild 2, collected dust from the comet, and has returned those samples to Earth for analysis. Stardust image gallery NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, launched in December, 2004, arrived at comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, and at 1:52am EDT a 370 kg (820 lb) battery-powered impactor spacecraft struck the comet while the main craft flew by. The purpose of the impact was to reveal data about the comet's internal structure. There is now a gallery of detailed close-up photos of the comet. QuickTime movies: Temple 1 approach as seen from impactor impact as seen from main spacecraft If sufficient funding is allocated, the Deep Impact main spacecraft will next be directed to flyby Earth on a gravity-assist trajectory that will result in a rendezvous with comet 85P/Boethin in late 2008. Hubble Space Telescope Comet Photographs include Deep Impact's encounter with Temple 1, and comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter in July, 1994. The National Space Science Data Center's Shoemaker-Levy 9-Jupiter Collision page links to photos of this event from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Galileo Jupiter Orbiter, and the Ulysses & Voyager 2 spacecraft. The NASA-JPL Comet Observation Home Page provides information on locating and observing comets telescopically. Comet Structure explained by David Jewitt of the Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. Meteor "showers" consist of debris from comets that crossed the Earth's orbital path. Comets and Meteor Showers, by Gary W. Kronk of the American Meteor Society, includes Meteor Observing Calendar, an online book that gives the best observing dates for numerous meteor showers. Meteors and Meteor Showers explains meteors and fireballs (with photos), and gives the names and dates of major recurring meteor showers. From an online course, "Astronomy 161: The Solar System", at the U. of Tennessee, Knoxville. SolarViews: Meteoroids and Meteorites is an introductory tutorial on the subject, concise but thorough, with photos of stony, stony iron, and iron meteorites, Martian meteorites, and one that presumably came from the asteroid Vesta. Of about 24,000 meteorites that have been found on Earth, 34 have been identified (from their chemical composition) as having originated on Mars. The NASA-JPL Mars Meteorite Home Page describes those "Martian" meteorites, keeps track of news about them, and links to related sites. SolarViews: Asteroid Introduction is an introductory tutorial on asteroids, including a chart listing 12 major asteroids, their size, distance from the sun, albedo, discoverer, and date of discovery. SEDS: Asteroids is a similar introduction to asteroids, from the SEDS organization's "Nine Planets" solar system guide, with asteroid links. The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft was launched on February 17, 1996, on a mission to the asteroid Eros. NEAR Shoemaker flew by Eros on December 23, 1998, entered orbit of Eros on February 14, 2000, and landed on the asteroid on February 12, 2001. Although the spacecraft was not designed as a lander, landing was possible due to the very low gravity of the asteroid. The NEAR Shoemaker program was run by Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (instead of the usual JPL). NASA-GSFC: NEAR Shoemaker is a summary of the NEAR mission from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, including links to press releases, science results, and photos, including photos from flybys of Earth and the asteroid Mathilde. Space.com: NEAR Mission Archives includes news stories, feature articles, and photos and videos from the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission. NASA-JPL: Near-Earth Objects has information on 192 potentially hazardous asteroids that pass within 7.5 million kilometers of Earth. NASA-ARC: Impact Hazards evaluates the (very slight) possibility of asteroid or comet impacts on Earth in the near future, and describes what they are doing to look out them. Asteroid, Meteor & Comet Search: The DMOZ Open Directory searches for keywords in website titles and descriptions (not page content). You can limit your search to the Solar System links category, or search all astronomy or science links. Astronomy Search: AstroWeb is a directory of about 3000 astronomy links, maintained at the University of Strasbourg, in France. If you search for "asteroid" at AstroWeb (already entered), the results will be a list of over 50 links. Or enter any other search terms you wish. |
 The comet Temple 1, as seen from the Deep Impact spacecraft, 67 seconds after the impactor subcraft struck the comet on July 4, 2005.
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