[meteorite-list] UMD-Led Team Begins Imaging Comet Hartley 2 with Deep Impact Spacecraft

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2010 13:49:58 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201009082049.o88Knw8A027326_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://newsdesk.umd.edu/global/release.cfm?ArticleID=2224

September 8, 2010

Contact:
Lee Tune
+1 301-405-4679
ltune at umd.edu

UMD-LED TEAM BEGINS IMAGING COMET HARTLEY 2 WITH DEEP IMPACT SPACECRAFT

Images:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/3gallery/Hartley2_first_light.shtml

Some five years after its July 4th 2005 'comet shot' was seen around
the world, the Deep Impact spacecraft has begun regular imaging of a
second comet target, Hartley 2. The spacecraft will continue imaging
Hartley 2 during and after its closest approach on November 4,
providing an extended look at the comet. However, there won't be any
fireworks this time as the Deep Impact's secondary probe craft was
destroyed in its deliberate 2005 collision with comet Tempel 1.

The flyby of comet Hartley 2 is the second leg of the Deep Impact
spacecraft's two part extended mission known as EPOXI. During the
flyby of Hartley 2, the University of Maryland-led science team will
study the comet using all three of the spacecraft's instruments -- two
telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer.

"These first images mark the beginning of the EPOXI mission's
encounter campaign and the beginning of the Deep Impact spacecraft's
stretch run toward Hartley 2," said University of Maryland astronomer
Michael A'Hearn, principal investigator for the EPOXI mission and its
predecessor mission, Deep Impact. "From here on, we expect to get
better and better observations of the comet, culminating in images and
data taken in the days just before and just after the November 4th
flyby."

The imaging campaign, together with spectra and other data obtained
from the spacecraft, will afford the mission's science team with the
best extended view of a comet during its pass through the inner-solar
system in history. With the exception of one, six-day break to
calibrate instruments and perform a trajectory correction maneuver,
the spacecraft will continuously monitor Hartley 2's gas and dust
output for the next 79 days.

"Previous missions to comets, including Deep Impact, have shown us
comets that seem to be very different. However, we hope data from the
Deep Impact spacecraft's flyby of Hartley 2, which has a much smaller
nucleus than the previously visited comets, will help us to understand
why they appear so different. said A'Hearn, who won the 2008 American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Science Award for his
leadership of the spacecraft's Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1.
A'Hearn also won the 2008 Kuiper astronomy prize for seminal
contributions over his career to the study of comets, prominently
including the Deep Impact mission. "The next cometary missions,
Stardust NExT and ESA's Rosetta mission, will lead to additional
breakthroughs in understanding what comets can tell us about the
formation of the solar system," said A'Hearn.

EPOXI is an extended mission that used the already "in flight" Deep
Impact spacecraft to explore distinct celestial targets of opportunity
prior to it heading for comet Hartley 2. The name EPOXI is a
combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the
extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet Observations
and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called
the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). Note -- while the
mission name has been changed to EPOXI the spacecraft will continue to
be referred to as "Deep Impact."

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The University of Maryland is the Principal Investigator institution
for the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Maryland, is the science lead for the mission's extrasolar
planet observations. The spacecraft was
Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

Keep up with news of the spacecraft's flight to Hartley 2 in the Daily Comet:
http://epoxi.umd.edu/6outreach/daily.shtml
Received on Wed 08 Sep 2010 04:49:58 PM PDT