|
Isn't Crashing a Spacecraft into a Comet a bad idea?
|
View this Thread in Original format
| muzzybear |
Maybe it's just me....
NASA to send spacecraft on a crash course
The falling stars you make a wish upon next July may just be the debris from a cosmic collision.
That's because NASA is planning to create a cosmic fireworks display on July 4, otherwise known as U.S. Independence Day, when it sends a probe moving at almost 37,000 kilometres per hour slamming into a passing comet.
The copper-fortified craft dubbed Deep Impact is due to take off Wednesday at exactly 1:47 p.m. ET. It will then travel for six months to make the 431-million-kilometre journey to Comet Tempel 1.
Explaining the mission on CTV's Canada AM, York University astronomer Paul Delaney says the probe will actually split apart in six months less a day.
"They travel together," he said. "And the impacter portion is deployed just 24-48 hours before the impact. It slams into comet Temple 1 and then the observer craft monitors what happens."
When impact occurs, the comet, which poses no threat to the Earth now or in the foreseeable future, will be about 133 million kilometres from Earth.
NASA says the crash will offer an unprecedented look beneath the surface of comet Tempel 1, which has remained relatively unchanged from the time of the solar system's formation.
"Scientists suspect that frozen within these celestial nomads are the same chemical building blocks that lead to the formation of water -- and life -- here on Earth," NASA writes on its website.
"Do comets and our own planet have something in common? This clever mission could answer the question once and for all."
Delaney says he's got high hopes for answers to that question, but he's not holding his breath.
"It's going to bring us closer, but it's not going to answer the question definitively," he told Canada AM.
The flying debris will likely be visible to astronomers and space buffs on Earth, NASA said. And the crash -- although a minor one in relative terms -- will make a crater the size of a stadium on the six-kilometre wide comet, NASA said.
"In the world of science, this is the astronomical equivalent of a 767 airliner running into a mosquito," said Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission scientist, about the impact of the probe on the comet.
"It simply will not appreciably modify the comet's orbital path," he said.
Jay Melosh, a planetary geologist at the University of Arizona, says they hope to send the probe deep enough through the crust to reveal the interior of the comet.
"But we don't know what comets are made of. We don't know how strong they are,'' Melosh said Tuesday.
After splitting in two, one half of the probe -- about the size of a coffee table, weighing 370 kilograms -- will go crashing into the comet.
The other "mothership" portion, about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, will be snapping photos from a safe distance of a few hundred kilometres away.
"We will be capturing the whole thing on the most powerful camera to fly in deep space," said University of Maryland astronomy professor Dr. Michael A'Hearn, Deep Impact's principal investigator.
"We know so little about the structure of cometary nuclei that we need exceptional equipment to ensure that we capture the event, whatever the details of the impact turn out to be," he explained.
In addition to learning something about the composition of the comet, scientists hope the experiment will give them some insight on how to move a comet -- should one ever take a collision course with Earth.
With files from CTV's John Vennavally-Rao
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNe...?hub=TopStories
I'm a space geek, so I'll be watching the skies that night. |
|
|
| starsearcher |
| Send Bruce Willis and Ben Afflec out there they'll fix it! ;) |
|
|
| rabbitjoker |
| I think this is a GREAT idea. |
|
|
| trancechaos |
oh man this is great news for all aerospace buffs like me, i cant wait to see the results.
i cant only imagine all the engineering that went into a project like this, insane. |
|
|
| AwakenedAddict |
| quote: | Originally posted by muzzybear
NASA says the crash will offer an unprecedented look beneath the surface of comet Tempel 1, which has remained relatively unchanged from the time of the solar system's formation. |
Yea unchanged until they crashed a fricken probe into it... |
|
|
| trancechaos |
just think about the mass and velocities of the two objects,
the spacecraft will have virtually no impact and wont do any harm. |
|
|
| maxlow |
| ahhhh... as cool as blowing space rocks into cosmic trippy light shows sounds - I can think of some better ways to spend that tax money... tsunami aid for starters... |
|
|
| VERTiG0 |
This is clearly the absolute greatest way to spend tax dollars EVER.
No, I'm not being sarcastic. This is AWESOME.
AMERICA, YEAH! |
|
|
| Jem_hadar |
| this is so facinating... im intrigued and very interested to see whut comes about and whut they discover! |
|
|
| Fir3start3r |
| What could go wrong? |
|
|
| trancechaos |
| quote: | Originally posted by Fir3start3r
What could go wrong? |
everything!!!
| quote: |
Murphy's laws
If anything can go wrong, it will
Murphy's Law of Thermodynamics
Things get worse under pressure.
The Murphy Philosophy
Smile . . . tomorrow will be worse.
Quantization Revision of Murphy's Laws
Everything goes wrong all at once.
Murphy's Constant
Matter will be damaged in direct proportion to its value
Murphy's Law of Research
Enough research will tend to support whatever theory. |
|
|
|
| ShadoWolf |
| quote: | Originally posted by VERTiG0
This is clearly the absolute greatest way to spend tax dollars EVER.
No, I'm not being sarcastic. This is AWESOME.
AMERICA, YEAH! |
Has Canada put a man on the moon yet?
Has Canada even launched a rocket into space?
Didn't think so. |
|
|
|
|
