Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 19, 2004 is “STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2,” an image. It is credited to Credit: STARDUST Team , JPL , NASA. The original explanation runs about 129 words.

STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2
Credit: STARDUST Team , JPL , NASA Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Flying past a comet nucleus is dangerous. On January 2, the robot spacecraft STARDUST became one of the first to plow through the surrounding cloud of dust and grit to photograph the very heart of a comet.”

— APOD editors, January 19, 2004

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
January 19, 2004
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: STARDUST Team , JPL , NASA
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 129 words

All of January 2004 → · 2004 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Comets

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: January 19 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.