The first of 72 anticipated images of Comet Tempel 1 have arrived on Earth after a Lockheed Martin-built spacecraft came within 112 miles of the object on Monday.
Lockheed engineers gathered Monday night at the company’s Waterton Canyon facility — where day-to-day operations of the Stardust-NExT mission are managed for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory — to observe the close encounter.
Stardust has spent 12 years in space, becoming the first spacecraft to collect samples of comet — Wild 2 in 2004 — and return them to Earth for study.
The Stardust-NExT mission is a “bonus” encounter, with the plan calling for the spacecraft to observe what changes have occurred on the comet’s surface since a NASA spacecraft Deep Impact visited it in July 2005.
A news conference is planned later today so scientists can explain details of the latest encounter.
Ann Schrader: 303-954-1967 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
See the photos of the comet at .
