Comet 9/P Tempel 1
This comet is the target of the NASA Deep Impact
Mission on July 4th 2005 when the spacecraft Deep Impact will launch a
projectile to impact the comet with energy equivalent to
4 tonnes of TNT. Images shown here are taken with 50 cm Newtonian from Worth Hill Observatory before and after impact day.
Pre-impact images:
10th April 2004
4th May 2005
Post-impact images:
4th July 2005
Comet Tempel imaged four days before impact and 16 hrs post impact.
Exposures of equal duration show a marginal increase in brightness 16
hours after the impact. These are a series of short exposures revealing the brightness change of the nuclear region.
6th July 2005
Tonight the coma surrounding the comet appears more distinct:
9th July 2005
Finale
This was the view from Deep Impact. How big was the crater? The Planetary Society ran an online contest asking for guesses
as to the crater size. Seems I guessed right!