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First Results From Deep Impact Mission

Posted by Zonk on from the smash-and-learn dept.

jdoire wrote to mention a Physicsweb piece revealing some of the first bits of data from the Deep Impact mission. From the article: "Based on data from the flyby spacecraft and the impactor, Michael O'Hearn of the University of Maryland and colleagues say that Tempel 1 belongs to the Jupiter family of comets, although its overall shape and surface features are quite different from the nuclei of the two other comets that have been studied in detail -- Wild 2 and Borelly. They also report that Tempel 1 consists largely of extremely fine particles that seem to be very loosely bound together: in other words, the comet is more like a pile of powder than a solid rock." Looks like the Electric Universe folks were a bit off.

3 of 189 comments (clear)

  1. Re:First results back from comet by twifosp · · Score: 3, Insightful
    We found out fast things hitting big things make big collisions. This is great science.

    We make dumb posts that over-simplify and generalize events. This is great commentary.

    If you don't have anything worthwhile to post, don't post at all. I know you're just a silly troll, but a lot science has been at the hest of speeding things up and mashing them together to create collisions. Ever heard of a particle accelerator?

  2. Unlikely they thought the moon was powder by John_Sauter · · Score: 4, Insightful
    They thought to moon could be a big ball of loose powder, too.

    Neil Armstrong says he didn't know if they were going to land on the surface, or sink into it never to be seen again.

    Hard to believe that Neil Armstrong was not familiar with Lunar Surveyor. See http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/surveyo r.html.
            John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)

  3. Re:Formation of a City-Sized Crater? by Blitzenn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Exactly what was in that impactor that could create a city-sized crater?"

    It is exactly the inordinate size of the crater that has caused them to beleive that the surface is like a 'pile of powder'. It wasn't that the impactor was so large or going so fast relative to the target, it was that the surface material reacted so violently in relation to the physical impact. That denotes that the surface material has little to no cohesive nature. What really makes that curious is why would it possibly stay together to begin with then? It is a relatively small body and should exhibit a very very small gravitation influence. Why would such material form a body that at least gives the illusion of cohesion in the abcense of the physics that we believe it takes create such a body?