Title: Deep Impact Makes a Deep Impact on Planetary Science
Abstract:
"On July 4th, 2005, NASA's
Discovery-class Deep Impact spacecraft
successfully flew by Comet 9P/Tempel 1.
The spacecraft's impactor
collided with the nucleus, producing a
bright ejecta cloud that was
observed by both the parent spacecraft
and by numerous
telescopes on Earth and in space. The
new crater was actively
throwing gas and dust into space for a
few hours after the collision.
The impact ejecta
and post-impact material were much less
volatile-rich than expected, suggesting
that the top surface layers
of a cometary
nucleus are quite depleted. However the composition
and characteristic size of the
post-impact dust grains were very
different from those pre-impact,
revealing that the impact likely
did liberate unprocessed pristine cometary material. I will discuss
these and other conclusions from the in
situ and
ground-based observations of the
experiment."
--Yan
Dr. Yan
Fernandez
Dept. of Physics
Univ. of Central