Space.com: The first photos of the comet Tempel 1 taken by NASA’s Stardust probe were released Monday. The probe flew to within 181 km of the comet and beamed home 72 high-resolution images of the encounter. Stardust‘s photos are the first close-up views of the comet in almost six years; in July 2005 NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft crashed a small probe into its icy surface to determine its composition. This may be Stardust‘s last mission, after having logged some 5.7 billion km during its 12 years in space.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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