Scientific curiosity is going to cause a minor collision in space. On January 12, 2004, NASA is scheduled to launch a spacecraft named Deep Impact. This spacecraft will fire an 800-pound impactor right into the path of the 4-mile wide comet Tempel 1. The collision is scheduled to take place on July 4, 2005. The mission is stated to cost approximately $ 330 million.
Scientists at NASA are very eager to know what happens after the impact. According to a senior official associated with the project, the impact, they hope, will put an end to all the speculation about the interiors of comets. How comets are formed and what is their mineral composition.
The scientific community have long been interested in knowing what lies beneath the surface of any comet. They say it will help prove or disprove theories about how our planet was formed. Some scientists believe that comets are leftovers that remain after the solar system was formed. There are some who say that comets are made up of agglomerating dirty chunks of water ice.
At the time of the collision, the comet Tempel 1 will be close enough for astronomers to monitor what happens. The debris that will be kicked up will reveal, for the very first time, just what a comet is made of.
A member of the mission management team at Jet Propulsion Laboratory says that this collision is the astronomical equivalent of “tapping something with a hammer to find out what lies beneath its surface”, a practice common among geologists.
He said “The difference is - we're going to tap it with an 800-pound hammer."
He said that this collision will provide a better understanding of comets than the previous opportunity they had when NASA’s craft Stardust photographed the Comet Wild 2 at very close range. Those photographs only whetted the scientific curiosity of wanting to know what lies underneath a comet’s surface.
The mission management team is not sure what they hope or expect to find. Within the team there is already much speculation and even friendly betting. Most are in favor of finding chunks of water ice. One team member said that if that is the case, then they expect a large crater caused by the impact, roughly the size of a football stadium.
Another team member speculated that the comet is more porous and fragile than is believed.
The collision between the projectile and the comet, at a speed of 22,000 mph, will take place 83 million miles away from Earth.
