Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Outer space hole-in-one
NASA accomplished a nearly impossible feat on Monday, sending an 800-pound probe to smash into a comet following a 6-month, 270 million mile journey. The battery-powered impactor separated from the main craft 24 hours before colliding with Tempel 1. During the last two hours, it navigated itself toward a target point on the sun side of the comet and made three course maneuvers to reach it.
The probe took increasingly detailed pictures with its telescopic camera as it approached the comet, shooting its last image just 3.7 seconds before crashing in between two large craters. As one scientist explained, "The whole mission rides on what happens in about 800 seconds. We've only got one shot at it." I played back the spectacular video several times and still found it hard to believe. A perfect bullseye, delivered with such amazing clarity. The little green men probably had no idea what hit them.
90 seconds before impact
Click to enlarge. The red dot at the center indicates an increase in brightness caused by the collision
50 minutes after impact. The bright teardrop represents the plume of dust stirred up by the probe collision
- posted by Woofwoof @ 5:50 AM
