After six months of space flight, an 800-lb spacecraft carrying 317 lb of copper is preparing to slam into the comet Tempel-1 on July 4. The resulting impact crater—expected to kick up material from the comet’s still-mysterious nucleus—could be as small as a house, or as big as a football stadium.Full article by Elizabeth K. Wilson
Scientists hope that this unprecedented access to a comet’s innards will help them understand the solar system’s formation. Right now, all they know is that Tempel-1’s nucleus, which is about the size of Washington, D.C., is “a jet-black, pickle-shaped, icy dirt ball,” Donald K. Yeomans, coinvestigator for the Deep Impact mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), said at a press briefing at National Aeronautics & Space Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Space-based telescopes such as NASA’s Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft, also en route to a comet, will track the event. One hundred or so professional ground-based telescopes and a small army of amateur astronomers will also be watching the show, hoping to spot signs of the impact blast...
Gem Books from 100 Years Past: 1924
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It was indeed a different era. What was going on in 1924 when these books
were being published and read? The 1924 Paris Olympics, Leopold and Loeb
murders,...
2 days ago
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