At NASA's Comet Encounter Celebration, September 10, 2010 at the Newseum in Washington DC, Planetary Science Director, Dr. James L. Green, presents a model of comet Tempel 1 to Mr. Kjell Stakkestad from KinetX, Inc.

NASA's Comet Encounter Celebration marked the 25th anniversary of the first comet encounter by a robotic spacecraft. The feat of the team of America's scientists and engineers that led to the historic encounter with comet Giacobini-Zinner on September 11, 1985, established a foundation of discoveries that continues today.

In the next 6 months, NASA spacecraft will encounter 2 additional comets:

• Hartley-2 on November 4, 2010
• Tempel-1 on February 14, 2011

What will we discover next?

Conference Brochures:

• Comet Conference Brochure (PDF, 165 KB)
• Comet Conference Program (PDF, 528 KB)