Surface of young Jupiter family comet 81P/Wild 2: view from the Stardust Spacecraft |
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Authors: | 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 Kissel Jochen |
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Institution: | Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. brownlee@astro.washington.edu |
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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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