Key facts
- Category
- Comets
- Object class
- Comet nucleus
- Mass
- ~23 billion metric tons
- Scale fact
- 5.5 kmmaximum extent
- Estimated age
- ~4.5 billion years
- Composition
- Water ice, dust, frozen volatiles
81P/Wild (Wild 2)
5.5 kmmaximum extent
Explore 81P/Wild (Wild 2) to scaleDetails
81P/Wild is the comet NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew through in 2004, catching grains of its coma in aerogel and returning them to Earth in 2006 — the first sample of cometary dust ever returned to Earth.
Stardust crossed Wild 2’s coma in January 2004 and captured thousands of fast-moving grains in aerogel. The return capsule landed in Utah two years later, delivering the first comet samples to laboratories. Among the grains were high-temperature minerals, including olivine and calcium-aluminum-rich material, evidence that solids moved from hot inner regions of the young Solar System to the colder zone where the comet formed.
Links
- Preset views
- Wikipedia
- 81P/Wild (Wild 2) on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near 81P/Wild (Wild 2) on the scale
On the logarithmic size axis, 81P/Wild (Wild 2) falls between 4179 Toutatis and 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The band uses nearby Comet nucleus records.
Shared physical scale
8.41km
Sources
References for 81P/Wild (Wild 2)
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- 81P/Wild (Wild 2) — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Stardust 2004 / NASA, Public domain)
Continue with nearby objects or open the full scale.
About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.