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Deep Impact

Deep Impact

Famous for its July 4, 2005 planned impact with comet Tempel 1 that generated a brilliant flash of light later discovered to be ice and dust debris ejecting from the fresh impact crater, the Deep Impact mission was the first attempt to peer beneath the surface of a comet.

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Mission Statistics

Launch Date

Jan. 12, 2005

Type

Flyby Spacecraft

Target

Asteroids and Comets

Status

Past

About the mission

Famous for its July 4, 2005 planned impact with comet Tempel 1 that generated a brilliant flash of light later discovered to be ice and dust debris ejecting from the fresh impact crater, the Deep Impact mission was the first attempt to peer beneath the surface of a comet.

Deep Impact, which released an impactor on comet Tempel 1 to expose materials on its surface, revealed a number of new findings about comets and their composition, including evidence of water ice and organic materials. Researchers now believe that comets may have transported these compounds to Earth at one time, playing an essential role in the formation of the solar system and life on Earth.

July 2005: Data from Deep Impact shows that a cloud of fine powdery material was released when the impactor slammed into the nucleus of comet Tempel 1.

September 2005: Researchers discover a number of surprising facts about comet Tempel 1 from the Deep Impact experiment: Tempel 1 has a very fluffy structure made up of a fine dust that is weaker than a bank of powder snow, but that's held together by gravity; what appear to be impact craters can be seen on the surface of the comet; a huge increase of carbon-containing materials were detected when analyzing the comet's ejection plume, indicating that comets contain a substantial amount of organic material and may have brought that material to Earth at one time; and the comet's interior is well shielded from solar heating, meaning that the ice and other material deep within the comet nucleus may be unchanged from the early days of the solar system.

September 2005: Astronomers, using data from NASA's Sptizer Space Telescope and Deep Impact, come up with a list of compounds thought to be the recipe for planets, comets and other bodies in the solar system. Included are silicates, or sand, clay, carbonates, iron-bearing compounds and even aromatic hydrocarbons.

February 2006: The Deep Impact team discovers water ice on comet Tempel 1.

Instruments

  • High-Resolution Instrument (HRI)
  • Medium-Resolution Instrument (MRI)
  • Impactor
  • Impactor Target Sensor (ITS)

Mission Highlights

July 3, 2005

Deep Impact releases an impactor on comet Tempel 1.

July 4, 2005

Deep Impact's impactor reaches the surface of comet Tempel 1, generating an immense flash of light where the impactor struck the comet.

Feb. 14, 2011

Comet Tempel 1 is visited a second time by the Stardust-NExT mission, which studies the area where Deep Impact released its impactor in 2005.
Asteroid

More about Asteroids and Comets

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NASA to Discuss Psyche Asteroid Mission

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NASA Announces Launch Delay for Its Psyche Asteroid Mission

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Planetary Defense Exercise Uses Apophis as Hazardous Asteroid Stand-In

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NASA’s Psyche Starts Processing at Kennedy

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NASA Shows Off Psyche Spacecraft to Media

News .

US Space Force Releases Decades of Bolide Data to NASA for Planetary Defense Studies

News .

Shake and Bake: NASA’s Psyche Is Tested in Spacelike Conditions

News .

NASA System Predicts Impact of Small Asteroid

News .

NASA’s Psyche Gets Huge Solar Arrays for Trip to Metal-Rich Asteroid

News .

NASA Solar Sail Mission to Chase Tiny Asteroid After Artemis I Launch

› Mission Website
› Solar System Deep Impact Site

Explore Other Missions

Hayabusa

Stardust-NExT

Deep Impact - EPOXI

Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission

Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter

NEOWISE

Deep Space 1

Near Earth Asteroid Scout

Psyche

Stardust

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