Phil Plait has the report on NASA's latest pictures from the flyby of Hartley 2, which reveal that the comet is surrounded by a blizzard of snow and ice:
Wow! Most of those dots are not stars: they are actual snowballs, frozen matter that has been ejected by the comet itself! They range in size from a few centimeters to a few dozen across, so they really are about the size of snowballs you’d use in a snowball fight… or to make a snowman. But I wouldn’t recommend it: a lot of that material is not frozen water, it’s actually frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice.
Find out what else we've learned about Hartley 2 and see more photos at Bad Astronomy
. Related Content: Bad Astronomy: Amazing Close-Ups of Comet Hartley 2!
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Image: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UMD
