Deep Impact Mission: Big Fourth of July Bash

[chonsigirl]

How about the biggest firework ever for the Fourth Of July! The Deep Impact Probe will try it's stuff tomorrow to smash into Comet Tempel 1 to get a peek inside. I think it is a very interesting mission, and that we need more missions to space.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8435968/

Deep Impact releases probe for comet collision

NASA spacecraft set for fiery impact with comet on July 4

Updated: 8:40 p.m. ET July 3, 2005

PASADENA, Calif. - A NASA space probe was bearing down on its comet target Sunday in a mission scientists hope will end with a cataclysmic crash ” and new insights into the origins of the solar system.

The 820-pound copper probe was on course to intercept the comet Tempel 1 to smash a hole in it so scientists can get their first peek at the heart of one of these icy celestial bodies.

Comets are the leftover building blocks of the solar system, which formed when a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsed to create the sun and planets. Because comets were born in the system’s outer fringes, their cores still possess some of the primordial ingredients and studying them could yield clues to how the solar system formed 4.5 billion years ago.

Links:

http://www1.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deep ... index.html

http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html