Stardust's Surprise NASA's Stardust spacecraft got a surprise as it pulled away from Comet Wild 2 on January 2nd -- it focused a navigation camera on the comet -- intending just to keep the spacecraft on course -- and snapped a photo of Wild 2 that generated quite a bit of excitement. Wild 2 had surface features not expected on a comet. It had craters, 100m high cliffs and barn sized boulders.