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Fluctuating carbon dioxide from Hartley 2

Fluctuating carbon dioxide from Hartley 2
Fluctuating carbon dioxide from Hartley 2 The top line in this figure shows Deep Impact images of comet Hartley 2 taken through a filter at a narrow wavelength sensitive to the presence of carbon dioxide, over a period of two days as Deep Impact approached for its flyby of the comet. The images vary in brightness, indicating that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the comet varies with time. The graph on the bottom shows just how much it varies: by a factor of four. NASA / JPL-Caltech / UMD