In 2005, the space agency's Deep Impact mission smashed an impact capsule into the comet, blasting a crater in its surface. On Valentine's Day evening, Feb. 14, around 11:30 p.m. ET, the Stardust-NExT mission (formerly Stardust), will pass about 120 miles over the comet, aiming for a look at the crater.
"For the first time we'll go back to see what happens to a comet," says mission scientists Pete Schultz of Brown University. Since the 2005 impact, the comet has passed closer to the sun and then headed out to the orbit of Jupiter, before heading back for another visit to the inner solar system. The team hopes to see not only the size of the crater plowed by the 2005 impact, but also to see how a close pass by the sun resurfaces a comet.
"We're going to find out a lot about how comets evolve," says Stardust-NExT co-investigator Steve Chesley of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif.
"By imaging the crater, we will be learning a lot about the mechanical properties of comets, which is important if we are ever going to land a spacecraft on one," says mission chief investigator Joe Veverka of Cornell University.
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