Hartley 2 in Motion: Stunning Morph Animation of Flyby Images

By Nancy Atkinson - November 6, 2010 at 5:32 AM UTC | Planetary Science

The folks from

UnmannedSpaceflight.com

have done it again. Daniel Machácek created this wonderful animation from just the

five initial images of Hartley 2 that were released by the Deep Impact team

immediately following its flyby on November 4, 2010, using

Sqirlz Morph

software. Time in the animation is five times faster than the actual speed of the flyby. Hartley 2 really does look like a flying bowling pin, except this one is 2km (1.25 miles) long and about .2 km in diameter. Thanks to Daniel for sharing his animation.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com