NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft is set to intercept the comet Tempe1. Impact with the comet is scheduled for 1:52 a.m. EDT, July 4 (10:52 p.m. PDT, July 3). Deep Impact consists of a subcompact-car-sized flyby spacecraft and an impactor, about the size of a washing machine. The dual spacecraft carry three imaging instruments, two on the flyby and one on the impactor. The impactor has an auto-navigation system that will make final corrections to its flight path just minutes before the scheduled collision. Scientists hope the resulting crater will expose fresh material from below the comet's surface and subsurface. Comets are time capsules that hold clues about the formation and evolution of the solar system. They are composed of ice, gas and dust, primitive debris from the solar system's distant and coldest regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago. Deep Impact will be the first space mission to probe beneath the surface of a comet and reveal the secrets of its interior.
Altough the chances are low I am hoping to catch a glimpse of the comet with my telescope (ORION StarMax™ 102mm EQ Compact "Mak"). I am going to Coho campgrounds in the Olympic National Park which should be a good site if the sky is clear. The comet will be located in our southwestern skies, just a bit above the star Spica, in the constellation of Virgo. You can find Spica by first finding Jupiter -- extremely bright in the west -- and then looking "left" towards the south. More information can be found here.
Altough the chances are low I am hoping to catch a glimpse of the comet with my telescope (ORION StarMax™ 102mm EQ Compact "Mak"). I am going to Coho campgrounds in the Olympic National Park which should be a good site if the sky is clear. The comet will be located in our southwestern skies, just a bit above the star Spica, in the constellation of Virgo. You can find Spica by first finding Jupiter -- extremely bright in the west -- and then looking "left" towards the south. More information can be found here.
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