NASA Deep Impact has deep space encounter with Comet Hartley 2

Comet Hartley 2 had been intercepted Thurs by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft, which transmitted stunning digital images to earthbound scientists. The Deep Impact spacecraft completed a comparable rendezvous in 2005 with Comet Tempel 1. Hartley, the Australian astrophysicist who found the comet in 1986, was in attendance at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., when the Deep Impact photos appeared.

Encounter in deep space

When NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft beamed back the first photos from its rendezvous with Comet Hartley 2, scientists standing by at JPL Labs cheered and applauded. About three quarters of a mile had been how long the nucleus of the comet had been. It also had glowing jets of dust and gas coming out of the back of what appeared to be a giant ball of ice shaped like a drumstick. After traveling 2.5 billion miles in five years, the spacecraft flew past the Comet Hartley 2 at a speed of more than seven miles per second, or 27,000 mph.

The reason the Deep Impact mission was happening with NASA

As the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, scientists will study comets to learn more over it. The NASA Deep Impact mission launched in January 2005 visited Comet Tempel 1. When it got there, it had a goal to fulfill. The nucleus was injected with an 800-pound copper projectile. The plume and ice had been measured by sensors. Finding the composition of the comet had been the purpose of this. Deep Impact had been then sent to rendezvous with Comet Boethin in 2008, but that comet broke up and disappeared when the spacecraft was en route. It had been rerouted to Hartley 2, which took an additional two years to reach.

Info about NASA deep space missions

Comet Hartley 2 is the fifth comet to be photographed by deep space probes. There were four before that. Involved are Tempel 1, Borelli, Wild 2 and Halley. All of the comets seem to look very different. In 2006, the NASA spacecraft Stardust passed Comet Wild 2. When passing, grains of dust from its tail were captured. The next place that it had been headed, after sending the dust back, was to Tempel 1 to visit again. On Valentine's Day 2011, hopefully it will reach its destination.

Details from

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/11/02/science/space/02comet.html?_r=2&src=twrhp

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/Science/2010/1020/Comet-Hartley-2-to-swing-by-Earth-Wednesday

CNET

news.cnet.com/8301-19514_3-20021786-239.html