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

Cautious optimism...

[cookiej]

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.

Heavens Gate part II?

[bigwavejas]

"...some people will tell you that comets actually produce organic compounds...We want to see if that's inside."

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/

My prediction

[2.7182]

It starts the first intergalactic war.

Germs

[Alex P Keaton in da]

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....

Space.com

[jazzman251]

Here it is at http://www.space.com/deepimpact/

Not tomorrow, but the day after

[MoobY]

In fact, Tempel 1 will impact on July 4th at 05:52 UTC

Re:Not tomorrow, but the day after

[Shag]

So you're saying Deep Impact happens on The Day After Tomorrow which is Independence Day?

This seems scripted...

Bets anyone?

[LouisZepher]

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?

Re:So will I be able to see this in the north east

[Shag]

The impact? No.

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!

Sounds familiar...

[MalusCaelestis]

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.

So this is, what, the most expensive episode of MythBusters ever?

It's NASA

[Anne_Nonymous]

>> 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.

Been done before

[localroger]

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.

Redneck Scientists

[Eclypser]

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"

Re:You humans are so arrogant!

[JuliusRV]

Protons can't escape from stars, silly. All the tons of gravity would get in the way.

He wrote "photons". And even protons escape stars. Did you ever hear of solar wind?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind

Countdown counter

[rbarreira]

Here it is

I hope it's correct :)

Re:Not really 23,000 miles an hour

[jswhitten]

23,000 miles per hour is the relative velocity.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/deepimpact/050628mis sion.html

Both the Deep Impact spacecraft and comet Tempel 1 are in their own unique orbits around the Sun. However, the comet is traveling substantially faster (29.9 kilometers per second (66,880 miles per hour)) than the spacecraft (21.9 kilometers per second (48,990 miles per hour)). ... the comet actually runs over it at a relative velocity of 10.3 kilometers per second (about 23,000 miles per hour).