NASA has given the go-ahead for a spacecraft to take a $279 million
potshot at a comet. The Deep Impact craft will hurl a 350-kilogram lump of
copper at comet Tempel 1 on 4 July 2005. Astronomers hope that the impact will
teach them something about a comet’s innards, as the blast will expose and
vaporise some of the interior ice. This will help them assess the prospects for
diverting wayward comets that threaten the Earth, says lead researcher Mike
A’Hearn of the University of Maryland in College Park.
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from 51¶¯Âþ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending 51¶¯Âþ articles
1
Mathematicians stunned by AI's biggest breakthrough in mathematics yet
2
Photos reveal unexpected details from the world's first atomic test
3
The Selfish Gene at 50: Why Dawkins’s evolution classic still holds up
4
We may finally know why dinosaurs like T. rex evolved tiny arms
5
How I used psychology to come back from the worst year of my life
6
The distant world that is our best hope of finding alien life
7
The ‘doomsday’ glacier’s giant ice shelf is about to break away
8
Epic dreaming is leaving people exhausted and distressed
9
Extreme heat hampers children’s early learning
10
CAR T-cell therapy bolstered by stiffening up cancer cells first
