Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cometary Fireworks Go Off Without Hitch

Posted by Zonk on from the waaay-better-than-the-movie dept.

PingXao writes "The JPL Deep Impact mission has successfully slammed a sattelite into Tempel 1 at 23,000 mph. (37,000 kph). The autonomous navigation system was primed for up to 3 course corrections in the final 2 hours of flight but only had to execute two of them. The second was so small - expending less than a pound of propellant - that impact would have occurred without it. Initially thought to be shaped like a pickle, it came to resemble more of a banana shape as comet Tempel I drew closer. Impact was estimated to have released 19 Gigajoules of energy, or the equivalent of 4.5 tons of TNT."

2 of 374 comments (clear)

  1. 4.5Kt, surely? by nagora · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Er.. that's it.

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  2. Re:And the real question is ... by Rakshasa+Taisab · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Obviously the movies add the sound effects afterwards. It's no secret that vacuum does not propagate sound waves.

    --
    - These characters were randomly selected.