Stardust / Wild-2 flyby only hours away...

[JackHiggins]

Under five hours, to be exact...

At 19:20 UTC tonight (Spacecraft time) Stardust will fly past comet Wild-2 at a distance of approx 300km, +/-50km. It entered the comet's coma about 43 hours ago, and is already being hit by cometary dust travelling a few km/sec. These will be caught by the Aerogel panel which Stardust is carrying, and it will be returned to earth by a capsule in 2006.

I've made an updated xyz to show the flyby more accurately. You can download it from http://homepage.eircom.net/~jackcelesti ... _flyby.zip

Just put the files into the data and extras folders, replacing any you have already with the same names. If you don't have the model already, get that too...!

Finally, a picture taken using the new trajectory, showing how the comet looked from Stardust a little while ago:


I'll be watching the flyby in real time as it happens...!

It's also the last thing i'm going to add to my site for a while, since i'm going away for a week tomorrow... Coincidentally, i'm going skiing!

[HankR]

Jack,

Thanks for the timely update to your xyz files for the Stardust encounter! I had downloaded your earlier xyz files yesterday and noticed that they weren't very accurate for the flyby, so the new ones are much appreciated. Thanks, too, for the excellent spacecraft model of Stardust.

I would also encourage people to check out your xyz file for Wild2 that shows the encounter with Jupiter that dramatically altered its orbit. BTW, you might want to post a new screenshot at your site for the Wild 2 orbit because Celestia's orbit rendering has been greatly improved since you made the original one.

Thanks again, Jack. This is going to be fun to watch!

- Hank

P.S. Have fun on your ski trip!

[JackHiggins]

Oh should have also said- this xyz only runs from Dec 1st to january 31st!

I didn't have time to make a full trajectory with the new updated elements, and also Horizons seem to have removed the first 1 1/2 years of the mission, for some odd reason...

BTW, you might want to post a new screenshot...

Good point. Will do!

Here's how things are looking, as of a few minutes ago:

The white dot in the middle is Wild 2, the dot above and to the right of it is Regulus.

[JackHiggins]

Well, according to a NASA press briefing about 20 minutes ago, everything is working perfectly on Stardust, and they will have another press conference at 23:00 GMT, when they'll be able to show some pictures from the closest approach!

Can't wait...!

[Guest]

The real thing!

Pretty nice quality too

[keram]

... Coincidentally, i'm going skiing!

I'm going skiing soon too!

Where are you going?

[JackHiggins]

Nice pictures from Stardust!

keram,
Back now, but I was in San Valentino, in the Italian Dolomites. Badly dislocated my shoulder on the 3rd day, and since that i've had my arm in a sling... Fantastic holiday though!!