[MrBF1V3]

Just a question: have any of you seen the comet yet?

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041213.html

B5

[intensityxx]

Oh Good Grief! My random comments in red
NASA to Smack a Comet
NASA is on a collision course with a comet, and scientists say they can't wait to see what happens.

The collision, which is to take place between a projectile fired from the space agency's Deep Impact spacecraft and a 4-mile-wide comet known as Tempel 1, is scheduled for July 4, 2005. That's when Tempel 1 will be close enough to Earth for astronomers to monitor the debris that the impact kicks up. If the mission is successful, it will help the scientists see for the first time just what comets are made of.

"As any field geologist knows, in order to understand the object you're looking at, you have to reach out and give it a tap with your hammer," said mission co-investigator Donald Yeomans, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where the mission is being managed. As any reader of scifi knows such tapping usually results in a) waking up the sentient life within the comet b) inadvertantly knocking it off course ever-so-slightly so next time it comes around it smacks us back! c) retaliation by said sentient life form "In this case, we're going to smack it with an 800-pound impactor." Sounds to me like the George Bush theory of scientific investigation.

Scientists are especially interested in comets because they are believed to be leftovers from the formation of the solar system. Understanding comets' ingredients could help prove -- or disprove -- theories about how the planets formed.

Researchers came closer to that understanding in January, when NASA's Stardust spacecraft photographed comet Wild 2 at close range. But many questions remain, especially about what lies underneath a comet's surface.

Indeed, the planners of the $330 million Deep Impact mission say they're not exactly sure what they'll find when their projectile hits Tempel 1.

"There's a betting pool within the science team as to what exactly will happen," said Yeomans. "Most of the money is going on the idea that comets formed from agglomerating dirty chunks of water ice. Under that theory, we'd expect to see a large crater about the size of the Rose Bowl Stadium (in Pasadena, California)." And it won't feel a thing.

Yeomans' money, however, is on a different outcome. "I'm going to bet that there's going to be a much smaller crater, which would mean that Tempel 1 is more porous and fragile than we believe."

(cont'd at article here (http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,66079,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1) )