Home > Comet, NASA > Smile! – Comet Tempel 1 gets its retakes

Smile! – Comet Tempel 1 gets its retakes

February 15, 2011

Wow!  I was tipped off by Emily Lackdawalla‘s Planetary Society Blog.  She found the image of the Deep Impact site.  I pulled the image from the JPL site, enlarged it, tweaked the brightness levels, and sharpened it a bit.

I got the impact site wrong, since it hadn’t been pointed out yet.  I thought it was that bright spot, definitely not visible in the 2005 images.  In perusing the press conference images several hours later I saw the real impact.  A low crater that blends with the color and terrain around it.  It goes to show how fast the dust liberated by the comet’s out gassing covers the surface of the comet.  I’d bet it we ever pass the comet next time around the fresh impact would be covered too.

Impact crater on Comet Tempel 1. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

Impact crater on Comet Tempel 1. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell. Image enhanced and annotated by Bob Moler

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  1. Saigo's avatar
    Saigo
    March 25, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    I have been wondering how to Calculate how Much a person would weigh on the surface of Comet Temple 1. (or how to calculate the same, if on the surface of other objects that our spacecraft have visited)
    I did what I thought was the ratio of the mass of Temple 1 to the Earth, but, I think I did something incorrectly. What I cam up with was a person weighing about 150 pounds would only weigh a Fraction of a Gram. I don’t think this is even close, because it seems the comet wouldn’t even be able to gravitationally hold “It’s Self” together.
    ——
    If you know what formula I would want to use, as well as Data about the Mass of Temple 1, let me know. Or sources where I could find out.
    ——
    Thanx.
    Saigo.

    Kujikuri666@yahoo.com
    ———————

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