Fact Sheet
Packing a Punch
Deep Impact, a spacecraft set for launch on January 12, will fire a small instrumented probe at Comet Tempel 1 when it flies past the comet in July. The probe will slam into the comet, blasting tons of gas and dust into space and gouging a deep crater. Instruments on the main Deep Impact spacecraft will study the crater and the material ejected from it to learn more about conditions in the early solar system, when the comet and the planets -- including Earth -- were formed. Deep Impact's launch was delayed from its original target date of December 30. [Credit: NASA/JPL]
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