TEMPEL 1: Kamikaze probes - Secrets of the Space Probes
TEMPEL 1 is a periodic comet which completes an orbit of the Sun every
5.5 years.
Deep Impact was a probe which intentionally flown into TEMPEL 1 to study the make up of comets. What they found changed the structural models of comets. More reading below.
NEXT:
Looking into the Sun from the corona: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPSZ0YmHWFA
They are our extension, our prosthetic limb, our ears, our eyes, even our nose. These are their secrets.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLke8o-yBwNzH__IIG6Uspl0QahLckqYZB
Deep Impact
Deep Impact was a
NASA space probe launched from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 18:47
UTC on
January 12,
2005. It was designed to study the interior composition of the comet
Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel), by releasing an impactor into the comet. At 05:52 UTC on
July 4, 2005, the impactor successfully collided with the comet's nucleus. The impact excavated debris from the interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater.
Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected. The impact generated an unexpectedly large and bright dust cloud, obscuring the view of the impact crater.
Previous space missions to comets, such as
Giotto and
Stardust, were fly-by missions. These missions were able to photograph and examine only the surfaces of cometary nuclei, and even then from considerable distances.
The Deep Impact mission was the first to eject material from a comet's surface, and the mission garnered large publicity from the media, international scientists, and amateur astronomers.
Upon the completion of its primary mission, proposals were made to further utilize the spacecraft. Consequently, Deep Impact flew by
Earth on
December 31,
2007 on its way to an extended mission, designated
EPOXI, with a dual purpose to study extrasolar planets and comet Hartley 2 (103P/Hartley).
One day after the impact
Marina Bay, a
Russian astrologer, sued
NASA for $
300 million for the impact which "ruin[ed] the natural balance of forces in the universe." Her lawyer asked the public to volunteer to help in the claim by declaring "The impact changed the magnetic properties of the comet, and this could have affected mobile telephony here on Earth. If your phone went down this morning, ask yourself Why? and then get in touch with us." On August 9, 2005 the
Presnensky Court of
Moscow ruled against Bay, although she did attempt to appeal the result. One Russian physicist said that the impact had no effect on Earth and "the change to the orbit of the comet after the collision was only about
10 cm (3.9 in)."
TEMPEL 1:
Kamikaze probes -
Secrets of the
Space Probes
For educational purposes.
stargazer.