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.

Comments

Not really 23,000 miles an hour

[onion2k]

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.