Now that the mission has scored a direct hit on comet Tempel 1, scientists move on to analyze the data from the crash.
With its intent to open a crater in a comet and discern its secrets, NASA’s Deep Impact mission succeeded in lining up its impactor probe with the comet for a spectacular collision.
The flyby craft has been collecting data, as have telescopes on Earth and in orbit. Scientists believe that data will help them learn more about the universe. Comets have existed for billions of years, and the material at their cores could tell stories about life on Earth.
Ice, gas, and dust comprise a comet, and within that matter scientists hope to find organic material. It is thought that comets hitting the Earth left behind water and that organic molecules became part of what is life on Earth today.
And, as scientists recover data from the mission over the week following the Deep Impact collision, they will be able to answer other questions about comets. Most of those questions focus specifically on their composition and structure, and are of specific interest to very specialized fields of study.
But if scientists can find evidence of organic material, they may find a bigger question posed from the results.
Those who study comets think they played a role in Earth’s development billions of years ago. If that hypothesis can be answered and confirmed by the Deep Impact data, it could mean that, elsewhere in the universe, comets fulfilled a similar role on another planet.
And that could mean life exists on another world.
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
