Deep Impact - asking for trouble?

[Si_Amigo]

@acadaca

Hmmmmm… What is it with Americans and blowing things up?

It’s a fairly small target (given the vastness of space and all) moving at a high rate of speed being hit by an even smaller projectile moving at a high rate of speed And it is a significant distance from the Earth. . . sounds like an anti-missle defense test to me. Sometimes they just like to prove out a theory with an actual experiment to test things out.

[Yeticus_Rex]

@Tuckerfan

As Finagle pointed out, the comet at it’s closest approach would be .5 AU from the Earth. That’s some 43 million miles (give or take a million or two), and the most likely thing that would happen if the comet did explode is that it would burst in a manner similar to the Death Star (minus the ring shockwave from the SE version), so you’d have hunks of it flying off in all directions. Most of them would probably stay in the same general area for quite some time (the impactor’s traveling at roughly 23K mi/sec.), so we’d definately miss any debris on this pass. What we would get (if anything) on the next pass depends entirely upon how long it takes the comet to complete an orbit and what (if any) celestial bodies are nearby as it makes it’s loop. If the hunks pass too close to Jupiter, they’ll no doubt get sucked in. IAC, we’ll have ample warning to prepare in the incredibly remote event that something large enough to be a concern starts heading this way.

Jupiter will indeed affect this comet more than the impactor will…and keep it further out.

@Sky & Telescope

When the fading comet finally disappears into the glare of the Sun late in the year, it will mark not only the end of a very special apparition but also the end of an era for this comet. Approaches to Jupiter in 2024 and 2036 will move Tempel 1’s perihelion distance from its current 1.5 a.u. to 2.0 a.u. Not until June 2122, when the perihelion distance shortens to 1.6 a.u., is the comet expected to again appear brighter than 11th magnitude.

[CC]

It seems to me, at least from the posts above, that many people do not, or cannot, grasp the enormity of the distances in space. I suppose that I cannot, either, given the virtually infinite sizes, but I’m willing to make that type of perspective part of my thinking. That permits me to consider a small piece of matter 43 million miles away of little concern.
Additionally, the notion of investigation seems to be a bit foreign to many folks. Sometimes, you just poke around with something to find out more. It’s not absolutely without thought, but, in fact, with a good deal of thought. Still, the unknown is unknown until it is known, and sometimes the only way to know is to jab, probe, whack, explode, or otherwise get into something. A geologist really doesn’t KNOW what will be inside any rock he picks, until the thing comes apart. A good guess might inform him which rock to whack, where to whack it, etc. But at some point, you just raise up and, wham! What you find, what is known to you after that instant is something that you really had no knowledge of before.
Of course, there’s a degree of risk involved with any action. Reasonable people take these things into acount and occasionally they assess the risks as virtually zero and they go ahead.
I’ll step down now from this self-made soapbox.

[Princhester]

@CC

I’ll step down now from this self-made soapbox.

Having done a good job while up there, IMHO.

[Squink]

Impact (plus or minus three minutes) 7/4/05 1:52 a.m.(EDT) 7/3/05 10:52 p.m.(PDT)

Tonight.

Deep Impact Mission to a comet

[Sam_Stone]

@Squink

Impact (plus or minus three minutes) 7/4/05 1:52 a.m.(EDT) 7/3/05 10:52 p.m.(PDT)

Tonight.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html

I’m watching this on NASA TV on my PC, and the quality is very good. I’m getting very good throughput. Right now they’re talking about a three uRad wobble they are getting that they’re trying to get rid of. Neat stuff.

NASA TV

[Squink]

I was hoping to watch from the back yard. Alas, it’s cloudy.

[Sam_Stone]

Well, that was amazing. What a great shot they got of the impact.

[scr4]

Been watching NASA TV - very impressive. Anyone know if the brightening was (or is being) seen from earth? The guy on NASA TV keeps saying it was brighter than he expected.

This must be one tough observation to make - having no idea how bright it’s going to be, and having no time to adjust exposure time (or gain) of the instruments.

[Tuckerfan]

A bigger burst than they expected and the comet hasn’t exploded yet. Ah well, a man can dream.

[Squink]

Impact

[Tuckerfan]

@scr4

Been watching NASA TV - very impressive. Anyone know if the brightening was (or is being) seen from earth? The guy on NASA TV keeps saying it was brighter than he expected.

This must be one tough observation to make - having no idea how bright it’s going to be, and having no time to adjust exposure time (or gain) of the instruments.

I went outside to look, but it’s too cloudy for me to see much, so I don’t know.

[Yeticus_Rex]

I did go outside with an 8" Dobsonian and 20 miles away from town, out in dark skies with charts…and still could not find it. It would have helped to know the beginning magnitude and the possible end magnitude, but I spent a good 2 hours looking for it with the capability of seeing down to magnitude 10+.

[rayh]

I see someone’s got upset about Deep Impact

Astrologer sues NASA for Tempel 1 'moral trauma'

[Squink]

Apod has a nice closeup of Tempel 1 today.

I don’t see any deep outgassing craters like they found on Wild 2.

[Yeticus_Rex]

@Yeticus Rex

I did go outside with an 8" Dobsonian and 20 miles away from town, out in dark skies with charts…and still could not find it. It would have helped to know the beginning magnitude and the possible end magnitude, but I spent a good 2 hours looking for it with the capability of seeing down to magnitude 10+.

Well, this explains it.