Deep Impact Gets A Big Flash From Comet

The Deep Impact probe hit comet Tempel 1 yesterday at a collision speed of about 23,000 miles per hour. "You can not help but get a big flash when objects meet at 23,000 miles per hour," said Deep Impact co-investigator Dr. Pete Schultz of Brown University. "Essentially, we generated our own incandescent photo flash for less than a second." According to NASA, the Deep Impact probe, which successfully hit its target, managed a few surprises for the team controlling the mission at Jet Propulsion Laboratories. One surprise was the bright flash. "The heat produced by impact was at least several thousand degrees Kelvin and at that extreme temperature just about any material begins to glow," said Dr. Schultz. Another surprise was a close-up shot of the comet that yielded details of surface features measuring about 13 feet across. A final image taken by the impactor probe from a distance of nearly 19 miles away, three seconds before impact, gave scientists a little bonus. "When I signed on for this mission I wanted to get a close-up look at a comet, but this is ridiculous in a great way," said Deep Impact Principal Investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn. The