Views of Tempel 1

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2005/07/04 10:47 CDT

Topics: pretty pictures, comets, comet Tempel 1, Deep Impact, astronomy and astrophysics spacecraft, Hubble Space Telescope

It looks like the European Space Agency was busy overnight -- lots of great Earth- and space- based images of the impact have been appearing on various websites. Here's a set from Hubble:

NASA, ESA, P. Feldman (JHU) and H. Weaver (JHU/APL)

Tempel 1 as seen by Hubble, a minute prior to impact (July 4, 2005 at 05:51 UTC)

NASA, ESA, P. Feldman (JHU) and H. Weaver (JHU/APL)

Tempel 1 as seen by Hubble, 19 minutes after impact (July 4, 2005 at 06:01 UTC)

The comet's brightness increased by a factor of 4, and the cloud of gas and dust around the nucleus spread out to about 200 kilometers wide.

NASA, ESA, P. Feldman (JHU) and H. Weaver (JHU/APL)

The Deep Impact Impact onto Tempel 1 as witnessed by Hubble

This photo was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope at 07:20 UTC on July 4, 2005, 28 minutes after the Deep Impact Impactor spacecraft crashed into the comet. The fan-like cloud of gas and dust extends about 1800 kilometers from the nucleus.

This view is from ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft.

ESA/MSSL/Optical Monitor team. Image by Charo Gonzales and Pedro Rodriguez, ESAC (Spain)

The Deep Impact Impact onto Tempel 1 as witnessed by XMM-Newton

This view is from ESA's XMM-Newton spacecraft. Two channels were used, blue, and ultraviolet. The top three images were taken through the blue channel and show the expansion of the post-impact cloud surrounding the comet. The bottom three images were taken through the ultraviolet channel, in a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum that is sensitive to the presence of the hydroxyl ion, OH-, which is the first direct decay product of water.