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Impactor ejects mighty water mass By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter, in Leicester Comets hold materials unchanged since the Solar System's formation The Nasa projectile that slammed into Comet Tempel 1 last year kicked out at least 250,000 tonnes of water. The figure comes from UK/US scientists on the Swift telescope, one of many observatories called on to study the US space agency's Deep Impact event. Swift's X-ray data shows more water was released and over a longer time scale than had previously been thought. Researchers hope the new information will help them understand better the nature and construction...

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is on course for a July 4 encounter with comet Tempel 1 but mission officials are trying to determine why a telescope that will function as its main science instrument has not reached proper focus, the space agency said Friday. Officials nonetheless expressed confidence that the mission will not be affected by the problem. Deep Impact carries an "impactor" that will be released to collide with the comet, possibly creating a stadium-size gouge while the spacecraft's instruments collect data on the material that is hurled off. The craft was launched on Jan....

In 1989, Edward Bryant climbed a point on the southeast coast of his native Australia with a colleague and found an odd jumble of boulders well above the surf. A big wave, he thought, maybe a tsunami from an earthquake, must have tossed them up there. Over the next few years, however, the University of Wollongong geologist explored hundreds of miles of coast and found more signs of wave action, hundreds of feet above the water--too high for any quake-spawned surge. An astonishing hypothesis of devastation from outer space formed in his mind. It gathered some praise, along with many...