Nasa spacecraft survives closest ever encounter with comet after flying within 435 miles...and sends back incredible image to prove it

These are the first images are coming back to Earth from a NASA spacecraft that has flown close to a small comet. The Deep Impact craft flew within 435 miles of comet Hartley 2 today snapping pictures during the rendezvous. The images at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California reveal a peanut-shaped comet. It is the fifth time that a comet's core has been viewed up close.

Today's mission is not the first for Deep Impact. In 2005, it dazzled the world when it fired a copper probe into another comet, Tempel 1, giving scientists their first look at the interior. Scientists are interested in comets because they're icy leftovers from the formation of the solar system. Studying them could provide clues to how Earth and the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Comets are icy bodies left over from the formation of the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Studying them could provide clues to how Earth and the planets formed and evolved.

'The mission team and scientists have worked hard for this day,' said Tim Larson, EPOXI project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. 'It's good to see Hartley 2 up close.'

After the $333 million comet-buster, NASA recycled Deep Impact for a new mission to visit another comet. It was supposed to target comet Boethin in 2008, but it was nowhere to be found. Scientists theorised the comet may have broken up into small pieces.

Deep Impact was then redirected to Hartley 2. Roughly three-quarters of a mile wide, Hartley 2 is the smallest comet to be photographed up close. On its way there, the craft spent several months scanning a cluster of nearby stars with known planets circling them.

While its latest task lacks the Hollywood drama, researchers still consider it an important mission.

'There are a lot of open questions about comets and their life cycle,' said project manager Tim Larson of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $42 million encore mission. 'We have so little data that every time we have an opportunity to go near a comet, it's a chance to expand our knowledge.'

Since September, Deep Impact has been stalking Hartley 2 like a paparazzo, taking images every 5 minutes and gathering data. Already, scientists have learned that the comet releases more gas outbursts than some of its bigger counterparts.

Hartley 2 passed within 11 million miles of Earth on Oct. 20 - the closest it has been to our planet since its discovery in 1986. British-born astronomer Malcolm Hartley, who discovered the comet, said he never imagined a spacecraft would get so close to his namesake find.

'When I saw the comet, it was millions and millions of kilometers away,' he said. 'I'm extremely excited and feel very privileged. After all, I only discovered it.'


/The Daily Mail/