Deep Impact


Nationality: USA (NASA)
Type:
Orbit:
Mass: 2
Launch (scheduled): 2004 December 30
Designation:
Website:

Deep Impact is a NASA mission which is designed to discover the secrets of what comets are made of. Its two components - a flyby spacecraft and a 350 kg (771 pound) impactor - will be launched together in early 2004 and travel to Comet Tempel 1, where they will separate and operate independently.

The flyby spacecraft will release the impactor into the comet's path, then watch as the 'missile' collides with the comet, making a football field-sized crater in its nucleus. The impact is scheduled for 4 July 2005. As the gases and ice inside the comet are exposed and expelled outward by the impact, the flyby spacecraft will take pictures and measure the composition of the outflowing gas.

Peter Bond,
RAS Press Officer (Space Science).

Related Websites

  • NSSDC information and images for comets and asteroids:
  • NASA/JPL's Deep Impact mission Website

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