Deep Impact

I guess we'll all have to wait another couple of days :lol:

I've seen any number of different scenarios - the big squidge (where the impactor just plops into comet as if it were a spongey kind of jelly), the big split where the impactor splits off a chunk of the comet and the big miss, where the impactor, er, misses completely....

If the comet nucleus is made up of solid material, again, any number of scenarios exists where the impact creates a crater of sizes ranging from a large house to a large football stadium, all of varying depths.

Also, there are all kinds of propositions regarding brightening effects, from none to naked-eye visible...

This has not been done before so I expect we'll see a lot of 'firsts' over the coming days/weeks/months.

Eyes open....

Cheers

Dave McD

www.planetary.org/deepimpact/contest_enter.html

Last chance to enter the Planetary Society's Deep Impact competition- its a guess the size of the crater after impact thing.

Here a link to a list of places doing web cast of the collision.

njnightsky.com/nuke/html/modules.php?nam...=article&sid=306

News Release: 2005-108 July 3, 2005



Deep Impact Status Report

One hundred and seventy-one days into its 172-day journey to comet Tempel 1, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft successfully released its impactor at 11:07 p.m. Saturday, Pacific Daylight Time (2:07 a.m. Sunday, Eastern Daylight Time).



At release, the impactor was about 880,000 kilometers (547,000 miles) away from its quarry. The separation of flyby spacecraft and the washing-machine-sized, copper-fortified impactor is one in a series of important mission milestones that will cap off with a planned encounter with the comet at 10:52 p.m. Sunday, PDT (1:52 a.m. on July 4, EDT).



Six hours prior to impactor release, the Deep Impact spacecraft successfully performed its fourth trajectory correction maneuver. The 30-second burn changed the spacecraft's velocity by about one kilometer per hour (less than one mile per hour). The goal of the burn is to place the impactor as close as possible to the direct path of onrushing comet Tempel 1.

Soon after the trajectory maneuver was completed, the impactor engineers began the final steps that would lead to it being ready for free flight. The plan culminated with activation of the impactor's batteries at 10:12 p.m., PDT (1:12 a.m. Sunday, EDT). Deep Impact's impactor has no solar cells; the vehicle's batteries are expected to provide all the power required for its short day-long life.

All sucess to Deep Impact

Sucess

Deep Impact gives Temple 1 a shiner

Sorry for the late heads-up, but Sky is carrying the NASA Television coverage live. For those with digital TV, it is accessible by dialling up Sky News and switching to News Active.

Seán