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Deep Impact Reveals Comet’s Components

Comet materials
Image: COURTESY OF NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT 200x175

The Fourth of July last year had some extra fireworks. NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft sent a hefty projectile--more than 800 pounds--into the body of the comet known as Tempel 1. The collision delivered 19 gigajoules of energy--the equivalent of nearly five tons of explosive TNT--into the wandering comet and ejected a plume of its innermost secrets. Roughly 10 million kilograms of comet stuff (more than 22 million pounds) spread out into space, giving scientists a rare glimpse of the ingredients that go into making a comet. Now researchers observing with the Spitzer Space Telescope have revealed their findings: comets contain a mix of materials that formed under widely divergent conditions.

Read more at SCIENCE NEWS -Deep Impact Reveals Comet's Components

Entry posted by HotTopicsJournalist on Monday, July 17, 2006 at 13:35. Filed under Other Missions. The author does not allow comments to this entry.