[meteorite-list] Deep Impact

[Ron Baalke]

> One thing that  bugs me...Has NASA developed hyperspace communications and 
> not mentioned  that?  The NASA reports have visual confirmation via downloaded 
> date of  impact just 5 minutes after the officially confirmed impact at 52 
> minutes before  the hour.   The light needs close to 7 minutes 26 seconds to get 
> to  JPL.  Was impact really earlier or have I missed something?  Or was  the 
> "image showing the tell-tale signs of high-speed impact" actually not a  
> mentioned, but rather just an image confirming the trajectory with 100%  probability 
> of impact?  This is important for back-yard amateurs to know  who followed the 
> event.

Both times are in Earth-Receive time, which means it already includes the one-way
light time.  The impact occurred at 10:52 PM PDT ERT, which we could tell when
we lost the signal from the impactor. Of course, the impact really occurred 7+ minutes
before that, but it took that long for the signal to reach Earth.  Five minutes 
later at 10:57 PM PDT ERT, we received the first image from the flyby spacecraft 
confirming the impact.

Ron Baalke