Deep Impact readying for the cosmic collision |
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Sat, 02 Jul 2005 20:35
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PASADENA, California: NASA is readying its Deep Impact spacecraft for the planned collision with the pickel-shaped comet, Tempel 1, some 83 million miles away from Earth on Monday, the U.S. Independence Day, in a bid to understand the building blocks of life on the planet.
The spacecraft is some 1.5 million miles from its target still, but scientists at NASA said, at an advancing rate of six-miles-per-second, it is well on its track for the Saturday release of the coffee table-sized copper fortified impactor, to crash into the comet and reach its nucleus.
Deep Impact's mission manager Dave Spencer said, "Both the fly-by and the impactor spacecraft are healthy and ready for encounter operations."
The 350-kg impactor will strike the comet at 1:52 a.m. EDT (0552 GMT) on Monday, at 37,010 kph. In case the impactor fails to detach from the main space ship in an eventuality, the scientists have option to send the spaceship itself into the comet, for the aim of the mission is so important, the scientists feel, they cannot take a chance.
As the impactor hits the comet, the spacecraft will be about 310 miles away from the comet. It will have about 13 minutes to take photographs and capture other data thrown out of the comet's nucleus, which are expected to give a clue on the material formed billions of years ago at the time of the creation of the solar system. The impactor as well as the main craft carry cameras and the event will be observed by NASAs telescopes. The spacecraft will then have to put up shields to protect itself from the blizzard of debris thrown by the comet. The collision can produce a crater some 14-storey-deep and as big as a stadium.
Scientists say the data collected from the current experiment will be invaluable as comets crashing into earth millions of years ago are believed to have brought water and early forms of life to earth. At a later date, they are also held responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Scientists said the explosion will be so powerful that it can be viewed with naked eye from the south western coast of the United States. Professional astronomers will observe the collision from 60 observatories in 20 countries with powerful telescopes.
Deep Impact was launched on 12 January and had covered nearly 430 million km of its journey. The $330 million project is one of NASA's trickiest endeavors as it is often described as hitting a speeding bullet with another speeding bullet.
Scientists do not expect any significant change in the path of the comet after the collision and obviously there is no threat to earth. Some scientists compare the collision to a mosquito hitting a superfast jetliner.
NASA's project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Rick Grammier, said the spacecraft and the impactor were operating normally.
NASA at present has its spacecraft on the surface of Mars, circling Saturn and one traveling toward Mercury.
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