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NASA's Deep Impact

Posted by timothy on from the metric-bathtub-or-imperial dept.

NivenMK1 writes "The Seattle Times has an interesting article on NASA's plan to nail the comet Tempel 1 with a chunk of copper the size of a bathtub on July 4 this year. This copper 'bullet' is intended to strike the comet at approximately 23,000 mph and hit with a force equivalent to 4.7 tons of TNT. Scientists hope to discover what exactly the comet is made of and what changes have occurred to the outer layers with reference to the core."

1 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. Silly question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Why copper?

    Is it because Tempel 1 is known to not contain any copper itself, so it makes the spectral signature easier to read?