Deep Impact Probe nears Tempel 1

mike65

After a voyage of 173 days and 431 million kilometers, a probe launched by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft will collide with comet Tempel 1 on July 4 – a first-of-its-kind, hyper-speed impact between a space-borne iceberg and a copper-fortified probe.

NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft and ground- and space-based observatories will record the potentially spectacular collision. Astronomers hope the collision will unleash primordial material trapped inside the comet, which formed billions of years ago.

"We are really threading the needle with this one," said Rick Grammier, Deep Impact project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. "In our quest of a great scientific payoff, we are attempting something never done before at speeds and distances that are truly out of this world."

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The Hubble telescope will be pointing at the comet so hopefuly there will be some good pictures later.

Mike.

SkepticOne

Early photos available:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html

Interesting movie taken from probe as it crashes in:
http://www.nasa.gov/mov/121493main_Impactor%20POV%20to%20crash.mov