Artist's concept of the comet Tempel 1, in visible (L) and Infrared (R) spectra. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
UCF Astronomy Program Director Helping NASA Monitor Deep Impact Mission
by Chad Binette (407-823-6312, cbinette@mail.ucf.edu)
ORLANDO, June 30, 2005 -- UCF astronomy and physics professor Humberto Campins hopes to see a spectacular explosion during the July 4 weekend.
From a telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona, Campins will watch a NASA probe crash into Comet Tempel 1 to provide what the space agency hopes will be the "first look inside a comet." Campins and two scientists with the Tucson-based National Optical Astronomy Observatory are three of many NASA-funded observers who will monitor the collision that is the focal point of the Deep Impact mission.
During the early morning hours of July 3, after traveling 173 days and 268 million miles, the NASA spacecraft will deploy a probe about the size of a coffee table into the path of the comet. The probe will travel into the comet in the early morning of July 4, while the spacecraft will pass by about 310 miles below it.
According to NASA, the mission will provide valuable information about the composition of comets and will help to answer questions about how the solar system formed because materials from the solar system's origins remain largely unchanged inside the comet.
Campins said no one knows exactly what will happen when the probe and comet collide. The probe could hardly affect the comet or cause a huge explosion, which would be the best scenario for scientists trying to learn more about its composition, Campins said.
"This is the first time that anybody will be looking inside a comet," Campins said from Arizona. "I'm very excited about this."
Campins, the director of UCF's Planetary and Space Science Group, and the two scientists from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory will watch the probe's impact with the comet for about an hour and a half on the night of July 3, ending at about midnight local time or 3 a.m. eastern time on July 4.
Observers from throughout the world will monitor the comet through different wavelengths of light to give NASA as much information as possible about it. Orbiting satellites such as the Hubble Telescope and other spacecraft such as the European Rosetta lander also will monitor the impact.
For more information about the Deep Impact mission, go to www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpact/main/index.html. More information about Campins is available at www.physics.ucf.edu/faculty_campins.php
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