Images and Movies from NASA's July 4th Deep Impact with Comet Tempel 1

[onedomino]

If you do not have Quicktime on your PC, you can get it here: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

Quicktime movie of impact on comet Tempel 1, as seen from the impactor’s companion spacecraft: http://www.nasa.gov/mov/121520main_HRI-Movie.mov

Quicktime movie of impact on comet Tempel 1, as seen from the impactor: http://www.nasa.gov/mov/121530main_its_approach_x4.mov

More Tempel 1 images:

This image shows the initial ejecta that resulted when NASA's Deep Impact probe collided with comet Tempel 1 at 10:52 p.m. Pacific time, July 3 (1:52 a.m. Eastern time, July 4) . It was taken by the spacecraft's medium-resolution camera 16 seconds after impact.

This image shows the view from Deep Impact's probe five minutes before it was pummeled by comet Tempel 1. The image was taken by the probe's impactor targeting sensor.

This image shows the view from Deep Impact's probe 90 seconds before it was pummeled by comet Tempel 1. The image was taken by the probe's impactor targeting sensor.

This image from NASA TV shows Deep Impact mission team members celebrating a successful encounter with comet Tempel 1.

 

[no1tovote4]

This is working to NASA's strengths! We have already seen how they can crash multi-million dollar machinery when they don't want to, and now we know that they can crash it on purpose too!

Awesome. Some of the pictures are just really freaking kewl!

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says pro'bly some space aliens hijacked it...

NASA Gives Up on Lost Comet Probe
September 20, 2013 — NASA is calling off attempts to find its Deep Impact comet probe after a suspected software glitch shut down radio communications in August, officials said on Friday.

The spacecraft was launched in January 2005 for a close-up study of Comet Tempel-1. It was not just a passive experiment. The probe released an 820-pound (372-kg) metal slug that crashed into the comet's nucleus, triggering a shower of particles for analysis by the mother spacecraft and remote observatories. Deep Impact continued its comet quest with a flyby of Hartley 2 in November 2010 and long-distance studies of other bodies, including the approaching Comet ISON. The spacecraft was also used to look for planets beyond the solar system.

NASA last heard from Deep Impact on August 8. Engineers suspect a software problem caused the spacecraft to lose its orientation system, cutting off radio contact with Earth in the process. After a month of fruitless attempts to find the probe, NASA on Friday announced it was formally ending the mission. “Despite this unexpected final curtain call, Deep Impact already achieved much more than ever was envisioned,” Lindley Johnson, who oversees the program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement.

This rendering by artist Pat Rawlings, released by NASA, shows the Deep Impact spacecraft's projected encounter with comet Tempel 1.

University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, who led the Deep Impact science team, said in a separate statement: “I'm saddened by its functional loss. But, I am very proud of the many contributions to our evolving understanding of comets that it has made possible.” “These small, icy remnants of the formation of our solar system are much more varied, both one from another and even from one part to another of a single comet, than we had ever anticipated,” said A'Hearn.

NASA had hoped Deep Impact would play a key role in observations of the approaching Comet ISON, a suspected first-time visitor to the inner solar system that was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers. The comet is heading toward a close encounter with the sun in November, a brush that it may not survive. Later this month, NASA's Mars Curiosity rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to catch a glimpse of the comet as it flies by Mars.

NASA Gives Up on Lost Comet Probe