[meteorite-list] Deep Impact Work Begins

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Jul 18 00:05:30 2005
Message-ID: <200507180404.j6I44fl29190_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~2969194,00.html

Deep Impact work begins
By Kimm Groshong
Pasadena Star News
July 16, 2005

The major work of NASA's comet-busting Deep Impact mission did not end
with the perfectly orchestrated collision and images of the comet Tempel
1 that gave onlookers goose bumps on the eve of Independence Day two
weeks ago.

The high-fiving hugfest in JPL's mission control that night marked a
high point in a seven- year-plus engineering and navigation effort. But
the real science story lies in the analysis of that impact since its
objective is to learn about what lies beneath the comet's surface.

Since Deep Impact's big night, observers and scientists around the world
have been trying to follow and determine the nature of the effects of
the supersonic crash.

Initial reports from space-based telescopes such as Hubble, which
observes visible light, and Swift, which detects optical and ultraviolet
light as well as X-rays and gamma rays, described a significant
brightening of the comet Tempel 1 and the cloud of gas and dust around
its core.

Mission scientists have not provided any new information about what's
going on with the comet over the past week.

But ground-based observatories around the world also have played a major
role in the observation campaign. Based on the first 10 days of
intensive observation, astronomers who used the European Southern
Observatory's La Silla Paranal Observatory reported "it appears most
likely that the impactor did not create a large new zone of activity and
may have failed to liberate a large quantity of pristine material from
beneath the surface.'

They say Tempel 1 was largely unaffected by the spacecraft crash, with
its jets appearing the way they did before the impact just days after
the collision.

Karen Meech, an astronomer from the University of Hawaii, is the
coordinator of the pioneering network linking all the world's major
observatories for Deep Impact observations.

"Earth observers didn't see a sudden brightening,' she said. "Instead
they saw more of a gradual brightening.'

Meech added that the network of data-sharing was truly unique. "Usually
researchers worry about getting scooped,' she said. "I think people have
been very generous about opening up to their collaborators.'

Locally, in addition to the scientists at JPL, astronomers from the lab
and Caltech observed the event and its aftermath using the 200-inch Hale
Telescope with an adaptive optics system that allowed them to remove
some of the effects of E arth's atmosphere. Researchers working with the
Spitzer Space Telescope, managed by JPL with science conducted at
Caltech, had the scope's heat- seeking eyes fixed on the comet.

But for now, especially while NASA continues preparations for an
anticipated Return to Flight shuttle launch possibly at the end of the
week, scientists are holding onto and thoroughly reviewing their Deep
Impact data.

As a European Southern Observatory's release said, Tempel 1 may be back
to sleep, but the work has only begun for Deep Impact scientists. And
the rest of us anxiously await their results.
Received on Mon 18 Jul 2005 12:04:40 AM PDT