A space ship launches from Earth and travels millions of kilometers in pursuit of a comet that circles the sun every five-and-a-half years. Once in its sights, the spaceship releases an impactor in the comet's path, and when they collide, a massive hole is blasted in the streaking cosmic dust ball.
The explosion of rocks, ice and dust that follows creates a type of heavenly fireworks that burst into space on US Independence Day.
PHOTO: NASA
It sounds like the script of a new science fiction film, but it's not. NASA is preparing the mission for real; only its name has been borrowed from Hollywood: Deep Impact. The 1988 movie was about a comet headed for a nasty impact with Earth.
NASA's Deep Impact mission may not be quite as dramatic, but it will far exceed the movie on technical and scientific merit. The US$285 million mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida today at 1:48pm. It will culminate -- if all goes according to plan -- with a chunk being blown out of the comet Tempel 1 on July 4.
NASA hopes the mission will provide clues to the origin of the solar system.
"We're actually going to go smash a big piece of copper into a comet's nucleus and see what happens, see what's inside," said Rick Grammier, NASA's Deep Impact project manager, at a recent media briefing.
The six-month mission will begin with today's launch of a Delta rocket carrying the "Deep Impact" probe and a refrigerator-size, 370kg "bullet" or "impactor" made of copper. After the probe reaches the Tempel 1 beyond Earth's orbit, it will release the impactor, which will position itself in the comet's path while the probe manoeuvres itself away from the impact area.
The impactor and comet will collide at 10.2km per second, releasing the energy equivalent of 4.4 tonnes of exploding TNT. The impact will blast a hole in the comet the size of a football stadium, NASA officials say.
NASA will film and observe the impact from various vantage points, including the impactor, the probe and the Hubble Space Telescope.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
A surprising gut feeling may help pigeons find their way home. Animals use various techniques to navigate, including following the stars and remembering key landmarks. Birds, fish and turtles orient themselves using Earth’s magnetic field as a compass, but it is not yet clear how exactly they do this. Pigeons are a well-known group of frequent flyers that can traverse hundreds of kilometers in a single day. For thousands of years, humans have used them to carry news, notes and military messages. Scientists have long tried to untangle how pigeons travel without getting lost. Some think the birds detect magnetic cues using light-sensitive
RSS