Saturday, September 17, 2005

NASA called it a smashing success

I posted this cool photo over at tommywonk in July:
NASA called the mission a smashing success:
This spectacular image of comet Tempel 1 was taken 67 seconds after it obliterated Deep Impact's impactor spacecraft. The image was taken by the high-resolution camera on the mission's flyby craft. Scattered light from the collision saturated the camera's detector, creating the bright splash seen here. Linear spokes of light radiate away from the impact site, while reflected sunlight illuminates most of the comet surface. The image reveals topographic features, including ridges, scalloped edges and possibly impact craters formed long ago.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD

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