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Tempel 1 Impact Day After Tomorrow

Posted by Zonk on from the destruction-for-science dept.

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.

12 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. Cautious optimism... by cookiej · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

  2. Heavens Gate part II? by bigwavejas · · Score: 5, Funny
    "...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/

    --
    "Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
  3. Space.com by jazzman251 · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  4. Bets anyone? by LouisZepher · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?

  5. Re:Not tomorrow, but the day after by Shag · · Score: 5, Funny
    So you're saying Deep Impact happens on The Day After Tomorrow which is Independence Day?

    This seems scripted...

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  6. Re:So will I be able to see this in the north east by Shag · · Score: 5, Informative
    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!

    --
    Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  7. Sounds familiar... by MalusCaelestis · · Score: 4, Funny
    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?
  8. It's NASA by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 4, Funny

    >> 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.

  9. Been done before by localroger · · Score: 4, Informative

    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:[.]
  10. Redneck Scientists by Eclypser · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  11. Countdown counter by rbarreira · · Score: 4, Informative

    Here it is

    I hope it's correct :)

    --

    The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  12. Re:Not really 23,000 miles an hour by jswhitten · · Score: 4, Informative
    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).
    --
    -Jed