Photograph taken by the Stardust spacecraft on January 2, 2004.
(larger - plume jet detail)

Comet Wild 2 (pronounced Vilt 2) is a comet named after Swiss astronomer Paul Wild, who discovered it in 1978. In 1974, it passed close to the planet Jupiter, whose strong gravitational pull altered the comet's orbit and brought it into the inner solar system.

It was studied on January 2, 2004 by a spacecraft named Stardust, which collected particle samples from the comet's coma (tail).

External links

• Orbital data of Wild 2