NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

Thirteen Seconds After Impact

Fireworks came early on July 4th [ http://lcweb2.loc.g…] when, at 1:52am EDT, the Deep Impact [ http://deepimpact.j…] spacecraft's probe smashed into the surface of Comet Tempel 1's nucleus at ten kilometers per "second". The well-targeted impactor probe was vaporized as it blasted out an expanding cloud of material, seen here 13 seconds [ http://photojournal…] after the collision. The image is part of a stunning series [ http://photojournal…] of frames documenting the event from the high resolution camera onboard the flyby spacecraft [ http://deepimpact.j…]. Tempel 1's potato-shaped nucleus is approximately 5 kilometers across as seen from this perspective. Cameras onboard the impactor probe [ http://deepimpact.j…] were also able to image the nucleus and impact site up-close ... until about 3 seconds before the impact. Of course, telescopes nearer to planet Earth followed the event [ http://hubblesite.o…releases/2005/17/ ], detecting a significant brightening of comet Tempel 1 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…].

Univ. Maryland [ http://www.astro.um…], JPL-Caltech [ http://www.jpl.nasa…], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov…]

Maryland

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Earth

Impactor

HRI

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap050705