Rosetta Ready for the Great Comet Crash
29 June 2005
On 4 July, a 370 kg copper probe from NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft will crash into the icy heart of comet Tempel 1, creating a huge crater. Telescopes around the world and spacecraft such as the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope will be watching closely to see what happens when the explosive impact occurs. Among those taking part in one of the world’s largest astronomical observation programmes will be ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser.
Rosetta has another nine years to go before it reaches its target, comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. However, the spacecraft will have a grandstand seat to observe another of the Solar System’s icy building blocks between 29 June and 14 July. Sweeping through space at a distance of about 80 million km from the comet, Rosetta will use its sensitive instruments to study the dramatic collision with Tempel 1.
Before impact, Rosetta will be watching during three full rotations of the dark, icy nucleus. This will allow scientists to learn about the comet’s state before the collision takes place.
During and after the impact, Rosetta’s camera will take long-range pictures of the nucleus and the cloud of gas and dust that is blasted into space. Other instruments will study the temperature of the cloud and try to find out what it is made of.
Tempel 1 is a short-period comet that travels between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Scientists want to learn more about such ancient objects, since they are left-overs from the formation of the planets, 4.5 billion years ago.
