Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: ukmicky on 06/07/2005 03:05:09

Title: deep impact
Post by: ukmicky on 06/07/2005 03:05:09

As we have all seen the deep impact mission was a total success and ended with the probe
crashing into tempel 1 at 23,000 miles per hour.
but when the probe crashed into the comet the heat generated was in the region of several thousand degrees Kelvin. wouldnt so much heat affect the  results of the experiment due to its effects on the comet and the meterial thrown off, making the experiment a failure.
how can they reley on any data aquired when so much heat was generated

Title: Re: deep impact
Post by: gsmollin on 06/07/2005 21:56:20

Good question. I'm sure that a lot of the plume wasn't heated to kK, but there was certainly a lot of shock to the material to get it to shoot out so far. That would melt the structure and possibly ruin the ability to see what it is, after the fact.

I don't know too much about what science is supposed to be gathered from Deep Impact. You should go to the JPL site and check this out.

Right now, it's front page news, so this link is all you need: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Huh, you came to me with a question, and I gave you an action to go answer it. I'm a system engineer!