Deep Impact spacecraft eyes Comet ISON The Comet ISON imaging
campaign is expected to yield infrared data and light curves,
which are used in defining the comet’s rotation rate, in
addition to visible-light images. February 7, 2013 NASA’s Deep
Impact spacecraft has acquired its first images of Comet ISON
(C/2012 S1). The spacecraft’s Medium-Resolution Imager took the
images over a 36-hour period January 17–18, 2013, from a
distance of 493 million miles (793 million kilometers). Many
scientists anticipate a bright future for Comet ISON; the
spaceborne conglomeration of dust and ice may put on quite a
show as it passes through the inner solar system this fall. This
image of Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) was taken by the Medium-
Resolution Imager of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. “This is the
fourth comet on which we have performed science observations and
the farthest point from Earth from which we’ve tried to transmit
data on a comet,” said Tim Larson of NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.