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Spacecraft Is on a Collision Course With a Comet, Intentionally (Happy 4th of July!)
NY Times ^ | June 28, 2005 | WARREN E. LEARY

Posted on 06/28/2005 4:43:23 PM PDT by neverdem

WASHINGTON, June 27 - A two-stage spacecraft called Deep Impact is about to make an ambitious attempt to dissect a comet by slamming into it and blowing some of its innards into space for all to see.

Launched from Florida on Jan. 12, NASA's Deep Impact is nearing the end of a finely calibrated 268-million-mile journey that puts comet Tempel 1 within its sights.

An 820-pound copper-core "impactor" is to smash into the comet's nucleus at 23,000 miles an hour in the early hours of July 4, an unprecedented event that will, if all goes well, be witnessed by its companion craft and numerous observatories in space and on Earth. Because of the distance and timing of the encounter, experts said that only Earth observers in the Pacific area using telescopes were likely to see the comet and any evidence of the impact.

Rick Grammier, the mission's project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said the final part of the encounter 83 million miles away was so intricate and so fast that the twin ships would have to handle these maneuvers on their own without help from human controllers. "It's a bullet trying to hit a second bullet with a third bullet, in the right place at the right time," he said.

Scientists say the impact, which should occur at about 1:52 a.m. Eastern time, could excavate a crater as large as a sports stadium and send plumes of material from the comet's core far into space, allowing the first view of the pristine inner material that makes up these icy bodies.

Comets are believed to be remnants of the materials that formed the solar system some 4.5 billion years ago. Astronomers believe comets' interiors have undergone little change since then and contain the pristine ice...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Technical; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: comets; nasa; science; space
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1 posted on 06/28/2005 4:43:24 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem
Guess it's too late to strap Al Franken to it, then. *grumble*


2 posted on 06/28/2005 4:46:57 PM PDT by Viking2002 (I'm the white Christian that Howeird Dean warned you about.)
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To: Sundog

~*PiNg*~


3 posted on 06/28/2005 4:50:03 PM PDT by Skylus (Make a liberal mad today! visit this forum: http://www.network54.com/Forum/88448)
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To: Viking2002

Hope they remembered to convert from centimeters to inches.


4 posted on 06/28/2005 4:53:09 PM PDT by neodad
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To: Viking2002
At last report the comet was going active - let's hope the deep impact is not obscured by a natural event.


5 posted on 06/28/2005 4:55:07 PM PDT by Fitzcarraldo
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To: Paleo Conservative; KevinDavis; Straight Vermonter; Cindy; Wiz

ping


6 posted on 06/28/2005 5:00:49 PM PDT by iso
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To: neverdem
Are we sure we want to do this? Screwing with a comet in this manner strikes me as somewhat risky considering the I-wonder-what-might-happen factor.

I hope that the Poindexters at NASA pondered that factor...

7 posted on 06/28/2005 5:03:43 PM PDT by yooper (If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there......)
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To: neverdem

Did we get permission from the Watermelons?


8 posted on 06/28/2005 5:08:32 PM PDT by TexasTransplant (NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSET)
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To: yooper
I hope that the Poindexters at NASA pondered that factor...

Are people actually serious when they ask this question?

9 posted on 06/28/2005 5:10:49 PM PDT by Strategerist
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To: neverdem

"Spacecraft Is on a Collision Course With a Comet, Intentionally"

Charge the operator with reckless driving.


10 posted on 06/28/2005 5:11:38 PM PDT by BeHoldAPaleHorse
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To: yooper
Are we sure we want to do this? Screwing with a comet in this manner strikes me as somewhat risky considering the I-wonder-what-might-happen factor. I hope that the Poindexters at NASA pondered that factor...

Think of a washing machine smashing into Manhattan. It will be fun to see, but the magnitude of difference between the two objects is too large for any kind fo dangerous impact.

Read this:
Cosmic Crash Won’t Destroy Comet or Earth http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/050628_deepimpact_effect.html

11 posted on 06/28/2005 5:29:36 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (I'm sick and tired of being sicked and tired!)
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To: neverdem

Cosmic Crash Won’t Destroy Comet or Earth

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1432678/posts


12 posted on 06/28/2005 5:33:20 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan (I'm sick and tired of being sicked and tired!)
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To: RightWhale; Brett66; xrp; gdc314; anymouse; RadioAstronomer; NonZeroSum; jimkress; discostu; ...
How fitting that it happends on the 4th


13 posted on 06/28/2005 5:39:48 PM PDT by KevinDavis (the space/future belongs to the eagles, the earth/past to the groundhogs)
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To: neverdem; yooper
The Jet Propulsion Lab had some neat ideas:

They wanted to nuke the moon, and to upstage the commies in the space race, we had Project Red Socks.

14 posted on 06/28/2005 6:38:28 PM PDT by Slump Tester (John Kerry - When even your best still isn't good enough)
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To: El Gato; JudyB1938; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Robert A. Cook, PE; lepton; LadyDoc; jb6; tiamat; PGalt; ..
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. Let me know if anyone has problems with a ping to two articles at the same time, or if you prefer it this way.

Racial Disparities Found in Pinpointing Mental Illness

15 posted on 06/28/2005 6:50:18 PM PDT by neverdem (May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows that you're dead.)
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To: yooper
Screwing with a comet in this manner strikes me as somewhat risky considering the I-wonder-what-might-happen factor.

Leaves me wondering if this is not just practice for a big one coming our way.

16 posted on 06/28/2005 8:57:04 PM PDT by lizma
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To: Flyer; humblegunner; TheMom; thackney; Eaker; stevie_d_64

Comet Crasher ping!!!!!!!!!!


17 posted on 06/28/2005 11:00:24 PM PDT by pax_et_bonum (Three guys walked into a bar. The fourth one ducked.)
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To: neverdem

What's the point of this? Why are we spending Millions - if not, Billions - on this project? I see absolutely no scientific benefit from this project.


18 posted on 06/29/2005 6:15:55 AM PDT by BostonianRightist (I don't trust a government I can't shoot back at.)
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To: yooper
somewhat risky considering the I-wonder-what-might-happen factor.

This has 'conception' written all over it. Hope no one left any DNA in the impactor.

19 posted on 06/29/2005 6:24:10 AM PDT by budwiesest
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To: BostonianRightist

It's fer the chillldrun?

I dunno - I guess someone somewhere feels compelled to waste more taxpayer dollars on foolish things.


20 posted on 06/29/2005 6:28:48 AM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow ("Para espanol, marque el dos.")
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