03 lipca 2005

 

Deep Impact

Tonight at 11:00, those of us here in Tucson may be able to observe an amazing technological feat. NASA launched a probe back in January, and tonight the probe will be close enough to comet Tempel 1 to fire a huge copper slug at it.

Whether or not we will be able to see anything is debatable. One of the reasons why this is being done is that we actually are not sure exactly what a comet is made out of. The main core of the comet will probably not move much, as big as the "slug" is (815 lbs), it still is small compared to the size of the comet itself (the size of a small city). However, if the comet is sufficiently hard, then a large stream of "ejecta" will launch from it and we may be able to see the effect. If it is slushy, it will sink with little or no visible ejecta.

The Flandrau Planetarium will be open, but they admit that light polution may be a problem. I hope to be able to go out to the desert to check it out.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

Comments:
Dammit! Of course I'm reading this at 11pm, way too late. Thanks a lot, Ted!
 
So what did you see?
 
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