Encounter with Comet Wild 2 a Heavenly Surprise

The most revealing close-up pictures ever taken of a comet have scientists shaking their heads in astonishment.

The rugged, diverse landscape of the comet Wild 2 is unlike anything they have ever seen or imagined: towering columns and spires rising above steep-walled craters and violent jets of gas and dust shooting skyward.

Wild 2, named after a Swiss astronomer and pronounced "vilt," also made a strong impression on the 770-pound spacecraft. Blasts of particles rocked the Stardust. A dozen particles, some larger than a bullet, penetrated the outer layer of its protective shielding.

But the spacecraft survived and is sending dust samples to Earth by a separate capsule. The capsule is scheduled to reach Earth in January 2006.

Astronomers thought comets resembled dirty snowballs, conglomerations of ice and rubble such as Halley's Comet, and might release some dust and gas, but not with the force encountered by Stardust.

Read more about the findings here:

Strange Comet Unlike Anything Known