| Downloadable Product | Comets Lithograph (new window) | Comet handout. |
| Downloadable Products | Cool, Curious Comets
Puzzles and Games | Handouts from comet missions. |
| Downloadable Product | Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud Lithograph (new window) | Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud handout. |
| Downloadable Product | Comets vs. Asteroids Fact Sheet (PDF, 1.3 MB) | This colorful illustrated document compares and describes comets and asteroids at a level appropriate for older children and adults. |
| Webpage | Where is Stardust Now? | Find the spacecraft's present position. |
| Webpage | Where is Tempel 1 Now? | Find the comet's present position. |
| Missions Database | Missions to Comets (new window) | A gallery of all the missions that have visited comets. |
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| Suggested Image | Comet Siding Spring | Comet Siding Spring appears to streak across the sky like a superhero in this new infrared image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The comet, also known as C/2007 Q3, was discovered in 2007 by observers in Australia. |
| Suggested Image | Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 | This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the Sun. The flame-like objects are the comet's fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line bridging the fragments. |
| Suggested Image | Tempel 1 Composite Map | This composite image of Comet Temple 1 was built up from scaling all images to 5 meters/pixel, and aligning images to fixed points. Each image at closer range, replaced equivalent locations observed at a greater distance. The impact site has the highest resolution because images were acquired until about 4 sec from impact or a few meters from the surface. |
| Suggested Image | Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) (new window) | This image of Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT) was taken at the WIYN 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Ariz., on May 7, 2004. |
| Suggested Image | Artist's View of Wild 2 | This is an artist's concept depicting a view of Comet Wild 2 as seen from NASA's Stardust spacecraft during its flyby of the comet on Jan. 2, 2004. |
| Suggested Image | Comet McNaught (new window) | This image of Comet McNaught was captured by the European Southern Observatory in Chile as both the comet and the Sun were setting over the Pacific Ocean. The ocean surface appears nearly flat at this distance. |
| Suggested Image | P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet Impacts on Jupiter (new window) | Color Image of Multiple P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet Impacts on Jupiter from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope's Planetary Camera. Eight impact sights are visible. |
| Suggested Image | Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragments (new window) | Last panoramic mosaic of comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL-9) taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The comet had broken into 21 fragments, all of which impacted Jupiter in mid-July of 1994. This image was taken on 17 May 1994 through the red filter of the Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2. At this time, the comet was about 660 million km from Earth. The comet fragments stretch across 1.1 million km of space. |
| Suggested Image | Comet NEAT vs. the Sun (new window) | This image shows a stream of charged particles -- called a coronal mass ejection -- hurtling towards Comet NEAT (the bright area on the right) during its spectacular close encounter with our Sun. |
| Podcast | I "Heart" Hartley 2! | The Eastern Seaboard of the US is all too familiar with snow and has probably seen more than enough dirty snowballs! But cometary scientists are eager for more. With the successful completion of the Stardust and Deep Impact missions, NASA had two working spacecraft that they re-purposed. The Stardust spacecraft will fly past Comet Tempel 1 (the target of the Deep Impact mission in 2005) in Feb 2011. The Deep Impact spacecraft flew past Comet Hartley 2 in Nov 2010. What do we know about this comet? How does it compare to other comets? |
| Podcast | Interesting Comets | Get to know a few well-known comets and the history of man's interaction with them. |
| Podcast | What is the Kuiper Belt? | Susan Murph from the How to Grow Your Geek Podcast and her children Amanda and Kevin discuss Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. |
| Podcast | Hayabusa | A brief history of the seven-year mission of the little spacecraft that could Hyabusa -- before the final step in its mission. |
| Video | SOHO Movie: Comet NEAT | Comet NEAT from SOHO |
| Video | SOHO Movie: Comet Hyakutake | Comet Hyakutake from SOHO |
| Video | Origin of Comets | Origin of Comets |
| Video | Discovery Channel Video | Hale-Bopp / SOHO / Shoemaker-Levy 9 |
| Video | Discovery Channel Video | Shoemaker-Levy 9 |
| Video | Deep Impact Movie No. 1 | Deep Impact |
| Video | Cook Up a Comet | This Night Sky Network video shows the Cook Up a Comet activity -- a nice option for watching when no dry ice is available. It gives insight into the "dirty snowball" model of comets -- composed of material from the
early solar system in the form of frozen water and gases, simple organic compounds, and dust. |
| Interactive | Bright Tails, Black Hearts: Exploration of Comets | Learn about the parts of a comet, its orbit and the missions that study them. |
| Interactive | Deep Impact Science Results | Learn about Deep Impact's science results. |
| Network | Solar System Ambassadors | The Solar System Ambassadors is a nation-wide network of volunteers who are trained to communicate the excitement of NASA's space exploration missions and recent discoveries to people in their local communities. |
| Network | Museum Alliance | The Museum Alliance is a network of museums, science centers, planetariums, observatories, parks, NASA visitor centers, nature centers, zoos, and aquariums that bring current NASA science and technology to their visitors through professional development of their staff and access to NASA staff, content and materials. |
| Network | Amateur Observers' Program | Originally put together to support NASA's Discovery mission Deep Impact, the AOP is continuing and expanding. We are observing the asteroids Vesta and Ceres in support of the NASA Discovery mission Dawn and comet Hartley 2 in support of EPOXI. |
| Network | Night Sky Network | This site can connect you to amateur astronomy clubs, events, a night sky planner, and more. |
