Close Encounter With A Comet

ANASA's aging spacecraft, Deep Space 1, has had a close encounter with a comet as old as the solar system, said American scientists in late September. It navigated close enough to comet Borrelly to give them their best look ever at icy dust and gas object.

Marc Rayman, project manager of Deep Space 1 at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, told reporters at a press conference: "The images are even better than the impressive images of comet Halley taken by Europe's Giotto spacecraft in 1986."

The space probe passed within 2,200 kilometers of the 9.5-km-long comet-- which scientists said is shaped like a massive, cratered bowling pin fashioned out of icy charcoal.

Scientists said they hoped data from the fly-by would aid future comet exploration. They said it is possible that comets could serve as a source of water and rocket fuel to aid any future colonization of the inner solar system.

Said one of NASA's scientists who is a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey "The pictures sent by the probe showed that comet nuclei are far more complex than we ever imagined. They have rugged terrain, smooth rolling plains, deep fractures and very, very dark material."

Scientists said although future analysis is required, Borrelly is thought to be a different type than Halley and made up of different materials. They said they believe this is because Borrelly may have come from a different region of the early solar system which is said to have formed some 3.8 billion years ago.

Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998.