Aster › Space program › 103P/Hartley 2
103P/Hartley 2
Position on the route: 36/181 · level needed 69 · journey (Mk0 engine) 12.2 h
By the numbers
| Nucleus | ≈ 1.2 km |
|---|---|
| Year | 6.5 years |
| Found | 1986, Hartley |
| EPOXI | 4 November 2010 |
The story
Hartley 2 is a small, very active comet found by Malcolm Hartley from Australia in 1986. EPOXI (the extended mission of Deep Impact) passed it at about 700 km on 4 November 2010: a peanut-shaped nucleus with jets bursting from its surface.
The jets are driven more by carbon dioxide than by water and fling out chunks of ice. The Herschel telescope showed that its water carries a deuterium ratio very like Earth’s oceans: part of our planet’s water may have come from bodies like this.
Missions
- EPOXI (NASA, 2010): a flyby
Colony note
Icy and active; an outpost for water and carbon dioxide.
What probes bring back
- EPOXI passed at about 700 km on 4 November 2010. The nucleus is about 1.2 km long and peanut-shaped; carbon dioxide jets from its surface and flings out chunks of ice.
- Herschel (2011) measured a deuterium ratio in its water very close to Earth’s oceans: some of Earth’s water may have come from comets.