Deep Impact Catches First Glimpse of Target Comet

smooth wombat writes "The BBC has a story, with pics and diagrams, showing the first image of comet Temple Tuttle 1 taken by the Deep Impact spacecraft. (Secondary link from Wired News) The Deep Impact spacecraft is to rendezvous with the comet on July 4th and impact the comet in an attempt to learn more about how comets are formed and possibly more insight into how the solar system was formed. A camera on the impactor will allow scientists to examine the surface of Tempel 1 in greater detail than ever before. Depending on how much dust hits the camera's lens, scientists should be able to see photos up until a second before impact. If that's the case, the photos will reveal objects as small as 8 inches in width. The photos will immediately be relayed to the main Deep Impact spacecraft and then down to Earth."

Comments

A note about the name

[FleaPlus]

Because there's inevitably comments about the mission's name (which is the same as that of a Hollywood movie) whenever this is on slashdot, I figured I'd try to nip it in the bud. From this article:

"The scientists came up with the Deep Impact name independently of the movie studio, around the same time, neither knowing the other was choosing it, even though some members of NASA's Deep Impact team were consultants on the picture."

For those seeking more info, here's the Wikipedia article (on the mission, not the movie).

Re:A note about the name

[cyclone96]

While I do not know for certain in this case (I do not work on Deep Impact), it certainly would not be out of character for NASA engineers to try to make this occur on July 4.

I work on the Shuttle and Station programs. Occasionally, we need to dump water overboard for one reason or another. It's spectacular to see from the ground, and while there are some constraints as to when it needs to occur often times we simply pick an arbitrary time period within a window to actually execute the dump.

You can be darn sure that, given the choice, we schedule it to occur over the continental United States with the proper lighting to see it for ourselves and watch the news pick it up! If the trajectory doesn't work out, we try to give Europe a show. It's not someone at Headquarters directing us to do it that way because it would be good PR, just a bunch of engineers that have found an interesting problem to work on.

It's a beautiful thing to see, might as well let the public enjoy it.

A drawing of the comet

[pease1]

Last new moon, I made this visual visual drawing of the comet using this telescope.

Amazing, but...

[fallendove]

We should be spending this cash on another moon rocket.

Re:Only Cameras?

[UnapprovedThought]

Even if there were no cameras or other instruments on board, data would be generated because the comet's orbit should be perturbed very slightly, something that would show up in future orbits.

The data will be valuable if we are ever required to change a comet's orbit in a hurry, or even if we weren't in a hurry but knew that something would hit the earth in hundreds of years. Due to the long distances traveled, a slight change very early on expands into a much greater effect many years later. There wouldn't be a need to launch a megaton nuke against something as long as it can be prevented early on by touching it with a feather.

That being said, a camera image can plainly tell you if you hit the target at all, and answer critical questions such as: did the object go straight through the comet without transferring any momentum? How much material was displaced? What is the size, density and composition of the dust cloud? What is the shape of the crater?

Much of this data can analyzed later to improve the accuracy and dependability of future missions, to help decide how much more research is needed, and to improve our understanding of space debris in general.