At a velocity of 23,000 miles per hour, the Deep Impact mission will expose what NASA hopes will be some of the secrets of the universe.
Two craft comprise the Deep Impact mission, where NASA spacecraft will expose the untapped knowledge hidden within the body of comet Tempel 1 for analysis.
One craft, about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, will be the flyby ship and collect data as it becomes available.
The other craft, roughly as big as a typical coffee table, will smash into the comet, thus making data available for the flyby probe.
NASA will spend 22 hours placing the latter craft, called the Impactor probe, into position. Then for the last two hours, Impactor’s onboard navigation system will steer itself into the sunlit side of the comet’s nucleus.
The resulting impact should create a crater about 80 or 90 feet deep and 300 feet wide. Material inside the comet, locked away for countless aeons, will be released from the comet’s core.
After the impact, the flyby craft will have a short span of time, around 13 minutes, to gather information about the comet’s secrets before it is hit by debris from the impact.
Scientists at NASA say the collision will happen at approximately 1:52 AM EDT.
Recently, scientists observed a massive, short-lived outburst of what may have been ice or other particles from the comet. The comet brightened considerably on June 22nd, due to the outburst.
“This most recent outburst was six times larger than the one observed on June 14, but the ejected material dissipated almost entirely within about a half day,” said University of Maryland College Park astronomer Michael A’Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact mission.
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
