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Mission engineering
Deep Impact mission officials provide an engineering overview of the spacecraft's daring attempt to fire a small probe into Comet Tempel 1. This briefing occurred July 1 at JPL. (41min 04sec file)

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Science conference
Scientists working on the Deep Impact mission give an update on research into Comet Tempel 1 and preview what they hope to learn with the July Fourth impact. This briefing occurred July 1 at JPL. (32min 29sec file)

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Launch of Deep Impact!
A Boeing Delta 2 rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral carrying NASA's comet-smashing probe called Deep Impact. This extended clip follows the mission through second stage ignition and jettison of the rocket's nose cone. (5min 37sec file)
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Tower rollback
The mobile service tower is rolled back from the Boeing Delta 2 rocket, exposing the vehicle at launch pad 17B just before daybreak. (3min 21sec file)
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Rocket preps
Assembly of the Boeing Delta 2 rocket at launch pad 17B and mating of the Deep Impact spacecraft is presented in this video package with expert narration. (6min 12sec file)
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Spacecraft campaign
The pre-launch campaign of Deep Impact at Cape Canaveral is presented in this video package with expert narration by a spacecraft team member. (5min 32sec file)
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Comet science
On the eve of Deep Impact's launch, mission scientists hold a news conference at Kennedy Space Center to discuss the comet-smashing project. (35min 17sec file)

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Mission overview
Rick Grammier, NASA's Deep Impact project manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, provides a detailed overview of the spacecraft and its mission. (4min 54sec file)
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Science preview
Deep Impact principal investigator Michael A'Hearn explains how the comet collision will occur and what scientists hope to learn. (7min 11sec file)
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Deep Impact tells a tale of the powder-coated comet
NASA NEWS RELEASE
Posted: July 8, 2005

Data from Deep Impact's instruments indicate an immense cloud of fine powdery material was released when the probe slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1 at 6.3 miles per second.

The cloud indicated the comet is covered in the powdery stuff. The Deep Impact science team continues to wade through gigabytes of data collected during the July 4 encounter with the 3-mile-wide by 7-mile-long comet.


This false-color image shows comet Tempel 1 about 50 minutes after Deep Impact's probe smashed into its surface. The impact site is located on the far side of the comet in this view. The image was taken by the mission's flyby spacecraft as it turned back to face the comet for one last photo opportunity. The colors represent brightness, with white indicating the brightest materials and black showing the faintest materials. This brightness is a measure of reflected sunlight. The Sun is located to the right, out of the picture. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
 
"The major surprise was the opacity of the plume the impactor created and the light it gave off," said Deep Impact Principal Investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park. "That suggests the dust excavated from the comet's surface was extremely fine, more like talcum powder than beach sand. And the surface is definitely not what most people think of when they think of comets -- an ice cube."

How can a comet hurtling through our solar system be made of a substance with less strength than snow or even talcum powder?

"You have to think of it in the context of its environment," said Pete Schultz, Deep Impact scientist from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "This city-sized object is floating around in a vacuum. The only time it gets bothered is when the sun cooks it a little or someone slams an 820-pound wakeup call at it at 23,000 miles per hour."

The data review process is not overlooking a single frame of approximately 4,500 images from the spacecraft's three imaging cameras taken during the encounter.

"We are looking at everything from the last moments of the impactor to the final look-back images taken hours later, and everything in between," added A'Hearn. "Watching the last moments of the impactor's life is remarkable. We can pick up such fine surface detail that objects that are only four meters in diameter can be made out. That is nearly a factor of 10 better than any previous comet mission."

The final moments of the impactor's life are important, because they set the stage for all subsequent scientific findings. Knowing the location and angle the impactor slammed into the comet's surface is the best place to start. Engineers have established the impactor took two not unexpected coma particle hits prior to impact. The impacts slewed the spacecraft's camera for a few moments before the attitude control system could get it back on track.

The penetrator hit at an approximately 25 degree oblique angle relative to the comet's surface. That's when the fireworks began.

The fireball of vaporized impactor and comet material shot skyward. It expanded rapidly above the impact site at approximately 3.1 miles per second, and the crater was just beginning to form.

Scientists are still analyzing the data to determine the exact size of the crater. Scientists say the crater was at the large end of original expectations, which was from 50 to 250 meters.

Expectations for Deep Impact's flyby spacecraft were exceeded during its close brush with the comet. The craft is more than 2.2 million miles from Tempel 1 and opening the distance at approximately 23,000 mph. The flyby spacecraft is undergoing a thorough checkout, and all systems appear to be in excellent operating condition.

The Deep Impact mission was implemented to provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar system's formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission scientists hoped the project would answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system by providing an in-depth picture of the nature and composition of comets.

The University of Maryland is responsible for overall Deep Impact mission science, and project management is handled by JPL. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo.

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Additional coverage for subscribers:
VIDEO: IMPACT MOVIES FROM MOTHERSHIP (NARRATED) PLAY
VIDEO: RIDE ALONG AS THE IMPACTOR SLAMS INTO TARGET PLAY
VIDEO: LEAD SCIENTISTS PRESENTS LATEST RESULTS PLAY
VIDEO: MONDAY'S AFTERNOON NEWS BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
AUDIO: LISTEN TO NEWS CONFERENCE MP3

VIDEO: DEEP IMPACT SMASHES INTO COMET PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATION OF IMPACTOR'S FINAL IMAGES PLAY
VIDEO: IMPACT PICTURES EXPLAINED BY COMET EXPERT PLAY
VIDEO: POST-IMPACT NEWS CONFERENCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
AUDIO: LISTEN TO POST-IMPACT NEWS CONFERENCE MP3

VIDEO: "DEEP IMPACT: THE MISSION" MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: "DIGGING OUT THE SCIENCE" PLAY
VIDEO: RECAP OF IMPACTOR DEPLOY ACTIVITIES PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW OF THE ENCOUNTER TIMELINE PLAY
VIDEO: LEARN MORE ABOUT THE SPACECRAFT PLAY
VIDEO: SCIENCE DATA FROM COMET OUTBURSTS PLAY
VIDEO: SUNDAY MIDDAY STATUS REPORT DIAL-UP | BROADBAND 1 & 2
VIDEO: MISSION ENGINEERING BRIEFING DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
VIDEO: FRIDAY'S SCIENCE CONFERENCE DIAL-UP | BROADBAND
MORE: DEEP IMPACT VIDEO COLLECTION!
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