Deep Impact .........

[capt_buzzard]

A Spacecraft is to be launched this week on a spectacular mission to blow a chunk

the size of Rome's Coliseum out of a comet.

The Deep Impact probe's 80m-mile journey will end in a 23,000mph collision creating a celestial firework display visible from Earth with binoculars on July 4th, Independence Day.

Its dramatic encounter with the Tempel 1 comet, creating an explosion equivalent to igniting 4.5 tons of TNT, will release a shower of debris that astronomers hope will provide clues to the origins of the solar system and life on earth.

The spacecraft and impactor probe will lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida today.

Comets are essentially enormous, dirty snowballs from the outer solar system made up of nucieus of ice and embedded dust and a surrounding 'coma' of gas and debris.

Some scientists believe comets could have brought material to Earth that provided the raw chemical materials that kick-started life.

The project will also gather data that will inform future missions such as the European Space Agency's Rosetta program, which hopes to land a craft on a comet in 2012.

Beam me up Scoty

[Paula]

New Italian Bread Coming...low carb...