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Science 18 June 2004:
Vol. 304. no. 5678, pp. 1764 - 1769
DOI: 10.1126/science.1097899
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Research Articles

Surface of Young Jupiter Family Comet 81P/Wild 2: View from the Stardust Spacecraft

Donald E. Brownlee,1* Friedrich Horz,2 Ray L. Newburn,3 Michael Zolensky,2 Thomas C. Duxbury,3 Scott Sandford,4 Zdenek Sekanina,2 Peter Tsou,3 Martha S. Hanner,5 Benton C. Clark,6 Simon F. Green,7 Jochen Kissel8

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.

1 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
2 National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
3 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109–8099, USA.
4 NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035–1000, USA.
5 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003–9291, USA.
6 Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, 80201, USA.
7 Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK.
8 Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie, 37191 Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should addressed. E-mail: brownlee{at}astro.washington.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope.
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Science 314, 1711-1716
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Impact Features on Stardust: Implications for Comet 81P/Wild 2 Dust.
F. Horz, R. Bastien, J. Borg, J. P. Bradley, J. C. Bridges, D. E. Brownlee, M. J. Burchell, M. Chi, M. J. Cintala, Z. R. Dai, et al. (2006)
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Deep Impact: Excavating Comet Tempel 1.
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Extraterrestrial Water.
M. E. Zolensky (2005)
Elements 1, 39-43
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Modeling the Nucleus and Jets of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Based on the Stardust Encounter Data.
Z. Sekanina, D. E. Brownlee, T. E. Economou, A. J. Tuzzolino, and S. F. Green (2004)
Science 304, 1769-1774
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