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Tempel 1 Impact Day After Tomorrow
TerminaMorte wrote to mention a news.com article detailing the impending contact of the "Deep Impact" satellite with the Tempel 1 comet...at roughly 23,000 miles per hour. from the article: "We know that the crust--the outside shell of a comet and the stuff that comes off a comet--is changed by the solar wind...One of the things that we're curious about is, some people will tell you that comets actually produce organic compounds...We want to see if that's inside." Update: 07/02 22:08 GMT by Z : Updated with correct day.
Well, since this seems to be one of the first times we've gone out of our way to really put the wood to something not from Earth, let's hope Tempel 1 isn't some sort of cometary offspring whose mother will take offense and pulverize us.
Just a thought.
Hell yeah it's going to produce organic compounds! 10 bucks says the Heavens Gate Gang is riding shotgun in that badboy.
http://www.cnn.com/US/9803/25/heavens.gate/
"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
It starts the first intergalactic war.
... as long as "they" can steer a small asteroid to Earth (1km in diameter), it's total loss for us.
The Raven
I really hope that they decontaminate this before it ever comes back... Viruses are some of the simplest life forms, so it is more likely that there would be a virus than a humanoid alien... Who knows what havoc this could wreak.
In all seriousness, hopefully this will give us a window into the creation of the universe, or maybe just the solar system.
I have sort of an obsession with astronomy... I think my parents always thought my telescope was for peeping on the neighbor- "honest mom, the vaseline is for greasing the telescope....
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
Here it is at http://www.space.com/deepimpact/
And if so, what time should I look in the sky, and in which direction?
I am french and I will own up to the arrogant part but the rest, well, really now.....
http://www.busyweather.com/
In fact, Tempel 1 will impact on July 4th at 05:52 UTC
--- Sigmentation Fault - Comments Dumped
A minor interplanetary conflict and you call it "intergalactic war". We could exterminate you all in a microsecond and it would be no more significant than a photon escaping from a star.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
comets actually produce organic compounds...We want to see if that's inside
Scientists discover: It's gigantic and filled with semi-organic compounds!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
"My God. It's full of stars."
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
Given the failed Mars projects, who wants to place bets that this plan to intentionally crash the probe will result in a safe "three-point" landing?
P.S.
No that's not a link to the Goatse pic.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
But if you wanted to try to see it pre-impact, you'd look (with a telescope or binoculars - it shouldn't be naked-eye) near Spica in the constellation Virgo; the comet will be near it, in the direction of Arcturus in the constellation Bootes.
If you have no idea where Spica and Arcturus are... find the Big Dipper. Follow the curve of its handle, and look across the sky a ways for a bright kinda yellowish star. That's Arcturus. Then look about that far again for a bright bluish star. That's Spica.
Or, get yourself on a flight to Maui ASAP and head over to Maui Community College, where a bunch of us will be doing a public outreach program featuring things like NASA people, live video links to observatories on Mauna Kea and Haleakala, and so on and so forth. And freebies. :)
I've only been involved with DI-related stuff for 10 months (as a telescope operator, and now for outreach) but some folks I work with have been on this for the better part of 10 years, so I hope everything goes well!
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
>> roughly 23,000 miles per hour
It's NASA we're talking about here folks. The smart money says they ruin the experiment by only smashing into the comet at 23,000 kilometers an hour.
And in other news, Americans are wrong because the U.S. independence day fireworks are happening on July 5th, UTC.
Good day, gentlemen. As you are no doubt aware, I have perfected a device capable of altering the orbital path of comets. First of all, I must offer kudos on a most inspired cover story...'scientific experiment' indeed...really, a first rate piece of propagan-da. Of course, you know it cannot last...
You see, gentlemen, things will only get worse...my device, which I've dubbed 'the Cometrix', will continue destablizing our solar systems' comets' orbits, drawing them ever closer to our fragile planet. First, our natural satellite will get hit, affecting coastal regions with high tidal waves... then it will be our planet's turn, with explosions occurring on a global scale. No place on the planet will be safe...civilization as you know it will cease to exist...that is... unless you pay me...
One hundred billion kajillion fafillion dollaaars!!!
<DramaticMusic>
Gentlemen, you have my demands...peace out.
The Apollo moon missions were observed telescopically by both amateur and professional astronomers. A terrestrial observatory even provided critical tracking information for Apollo 13's final course correction.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
Government scientists say the price tag is worth it. "One, we'll learn about comets," said NASA's Wessen. "Two, we'll learn about how that applies to the Earth, whether it brought organic material to the Earth...We can even learn, if a comet was coming our way, what it would take to deflect one of those things."
"Three, we get to blow sh*t up, YEEE HAAAAA"
The comment has already been made. Let's move it along people. Nothing to see here.
"One of the things that we're curious about is, some people will tell you that comets actually produce organic compounds...We want to see if that's inside.""
Tootsie Pop Comet.
it's legal to do this?
it's like throw a bomb over a national park to see if there are some fossils!
where is Green Peace?!
contact of the "Deep Impact" satellite with the Tempel 1 comet...at roughly 23,000 miles per hour
That's very deceptive. It's the relative velocity of the comet and the probe that's important, not the absolute speed. If it really made contact going at 23,000 miles an hour relative to the comet.. well.. I don't think we can expect much useful science back from it.
http://twitter.com/onion2k
They americans are shooting comets now.
Here it is
:)
I hope it's correct
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
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welcome our new space germs overlords!
Mmmm.... organic compounds....
Trying to ram a space probe into a comet at 23KMPH.. looks roughly as tricky as firing two rifles and so as to hit the bullets mid-flight several miles away.
And get it right on the first try.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
What if the destruction of this object triggers some orbit change in another (far away) body? I mean, this comet is supposed to pass near some other body, but due to our "attack" it doesn't. Just a randomic thought
wouldnt sending something into a comet at that speed destroy all the organic compounds?
just a thought
We didn't pound the crap out of the Moon with the LEMs. I do wonder if anyone had thought to look if we might have visually observed the impacts of any of the SIV-B's that were deliberately impacted. Those would have been considerably larger than the Deep Impact bullet, and a lot closer too. I can't find any hint that anyone tried to see them visually, though. If they impacted on lunar dayside, the whole event would probably have been lost in the glare.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
... they knock it off course and it comes plummetting into Earth, thus fulfilling the prophecy that one day, one of these things will hit us.
Organic compounds means compounds of Carbon... Not living tissue.
Texas-sized comet, accidentally knocked off-kilter by NASA probe, hits...
T E X A S
!!!!!
Yeah, baby, yeaaaah!
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Since when was Magnitude 10 easily binocular visible? Maybe if your at a really really dark site and know exactly where to look, but most people won't match these conditions. However, if it does jump up to Mag 6 as predicted, some people in rural locations might see it naked eye and it would be an easy target for binoculars.
Proponents of the Electric Universe theory have gone out on a limb ahead of Deep Impact. They're predicting it will show comets are just rocks and not dirty snowballs.
Controversially they assert comets are highly negatively-charged asteroids on eccentric orbits. As they travel further into the Sun's radial positive electric field, they discharge into space, expelling material at supersonic speed.
They dumped a few Ascent-stages (2 IIRC) after docking with the command module. The crew left in the CM to earth and the ascent-stages were dumped onto the moon's surface. The descent-stages (that stayed on the moon's surface) could register the "moon-quackes" caused by the crashing ascent-stages. Because of the low gravity they kept bouncing off the moon's surface for quite some time.
This unique sig is intended to make this user more recognisable.
What is this 'miles' you keep talking about? Some backwater concept?
That's no comet...
Wait, that's no probe either, it's an ICBM!
- OrbNobz
I can't believe I'm not famous!
I predict they'll find that it's really Apollo in his chariot, and boy, will he be pissed off.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
Good idea, nice job, successful execution, lets wait for the data. But. Couldnt these folks have taken this amazing experiment 1 step further? I mean by actually using the comet as a vehicle for our data collection deep into outer space going farther and faster than our own machines. Good to learn about the comets composition and maybe we find something startling there, but the comets path(which we probably know, and hopefully it goes farther than anything we can reach) should provide a "cost effective" method of sending our "spies" out into the universe! I think if we latch onto these comets and can gather data, photographs etc we can have many many "hubbles" "working for us" out there! Or if too unrealistic, atleast we hope to see this as a very interesting scenario in a sci fi hollywood flick soon.
I have seen several comments from people who are concerned that we may alter the trajectory of Tempel 1.
Hitting this comet is like hitting a 747 with a small pebble. It's highly unlikely that the 747 will crash.
But it's *not* impossible. Suppose Deep Impact were to ignite material within the comet that it was designed to penetrate? Or suppose the crater were to spew ejecta for a long period of time (it already is spewing more than expected). Certainly, the impact of NASA's mission won't *directly* affect the trajectory (F=MA).
However, the ejection of material from the comet, over the course of weeks or months, could easily affect the course of Tempel 1.
But, space is big and the Earth is relatively very small. The odds of any trajectory alteration putting the comet on a collision course with Earth are many millions to one.
So, rest easy. It's highly unlikely that some sort of Amageddon will occur over the next few years.