☆ TexasFreethinker ☆ Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 From today's San Francisco Chronicle... Comet blasters now work to put pieces together Collision may hold clues to Earth's origins David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Tuesday, July 5, 2005 As if blasting a crater into the crust of a billion-ton comet 83 million miles from Earth with an 820-pound, self-propelled spacecraft weren't enough, the really hard part of a brilliant NASA mission named Deep Impact is just beginning. Now comes the effort to puzzle out what this first-ever exposure of a comet's long-frozen interior can tell the world. Deep Impact's scientists hope to learn whether the wandering cometary nucleus, orbiting the sun since the earliest days of the solar system's formation some 4.5 billion years ago, holds the very same materials from which the Earth was formed and -- perhaps -- the very same water and the same chemical ingredients that enabled earthly life to arise. MORE HERE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Challenger Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 I had a pretty good seat for this event (a direct feed from Mission Control), and one of the scientists working on the mission gave us a play-by-play as events unfolded. The spacecraft was buffeted about by material streaming as it neared the comet's nucleus. But it survived and did its job. NASA is going to attempt a comet-landing and sample return in the near future. We've already retreived samples of a comet's tail and those are enroute back to Earth. A comet's tail is literally as close to nothing as something can be made out of. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Helmet Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 I had a pretty good seat for this event (a direct feed from Mission Control), and one of the scientists working on the mission gave us a play-by-play as events unfolded. The spacecraft was buffeted about by material streaming as it neared the comet's nucleus. But it survived and did its job. NASA is going to attempt a comet-landing and sample return in the near future. We've already retreived samples of a comet's tail and those are enroute back to Earth. A comet's tail is literally as close to nothing as something can be made out of. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> yeah, but still it could have been transformed a bit by the solar radiation. Scientist want the pristine stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedPillAddict Posted July 6, 2005 Share Posted July 6, 2005 I stayed up till 1 in the morning watching that. It was cool to see live. Very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Challenger Posted July 8, 2005 Share Posted July 8, 2005 yeah, but still it could have been transformed a bit by the solar radiation. Scientist want the pristine stuff. In the cold temperatures of space, this material will be as pristine as it gets. Dust from the beginning. . .billions of years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sonofspong Posted July 9, 2005 Share Posted July 9, 2005 Why can't anything cool ever happen when comets hit the earth? All they ever friggin' do is kill everthing in a 50+ mile radius. (or just wipe out the local giant lizard species) Why can't meteors ever do things like give people super powers? How cool would that be? I WANT SUPERPOWERS, DAMMIT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white_raven23 Posted July 9, 2005 Share Posted July 9, 2005 Why can't anything cool ever happen when comets hit the earth? All they ever friggin' do is kill everthing in a 50+ mile radius. (or just wipe out the local giant lizard species) Why can't meteors ever do things like give people super powers? How cool would that be? I WANT SUPERPOWERS, DAMMIT. I want superpowers too. They'd come in handy killing the hordes of living dead created by the "bad radioactive" comet that are all after our braaaains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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