NASA spacecraft limps to a close encounter with distant comet

A battered NASA spacecraft will attempt to fly within 2,000 kilometres of the heart of a comet this month to give scientists only their second glimpse of the dark heart of a glowing space snowball. The Deep Space 1 spacecraft will swoop past the comet Borrelly on Sept. 22, snapping up to 32 black-and-white images of its nucleus.If it succeeds in sending back close-up images of the nucleus during its approach - and the odds are slim - it will be the first to examine the dark yet dynamic core of a comet since the Giotto spacecraft flew past Halley in 1986.
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