[meteorite-list] Deep Impact: Getting to the Heart of a Comet with Europe's Contribution

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_33_2005_p_EN.html

European Space Agency
No.33-2005 - Paris, 21 June 2005

Deep Impact: getting to the heart of a comet with Europe's contribution

On 4 July 2005 at 07:52 CEST (Central European Summer Time), NASA's Deep
Impact mission, launched on 12 January this year, will start exploring a
comet's interior by producing a crater with an impactor spacecraft, allowing
another spacecraft to look deep inside the comet during a fly-by immediately
afterwards.

For the first time, it will be possible to study the crust and the interior
of a comet. As the material inside the comet's nucleus is pristine, it will
reveal new information on the early phases of the solar system. This is a
natural precursor to ESA's Rosetta cometary mission, which seeks to perform
the subtler task of orbiting and landing on a comet.

The impact will produce a crater expected to range in size from a house to a
football stadium and reach an unknown depth. Ice and dust debris will be
ejected from the crater, revealing fresh material beneath. Sunlight
reflecting off the ejected material will provide some brightening that will
fade as the debris dissipates into space or falls back onto the comet.
Dramatic images of the impactor spacecraft's final approach and possibly of
the impact itself and of the crater will be sent to Earth in near-real time
by both spacecraft.

Several observatories in orbit around Earth and countless Earth-bound
telescopes will work in concert for an unprecedented global observation
campaign to collect a maximum amount of additional data and information on
this event.

ESA will use both its Rosetta comet chaser and the XMM/Newton Observatory to
observe the impact. ESA's 1-metre OGS telescope on Tenerife (Canary Islands,
Spain) will be used for observations from the ground. The NASA/ESA Hubble
Space Telescope will also observe the event.

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) will direct all seven telescopes it
operates at the La Silla and Parañal sites in Chile towards the event,
amongst them the Earth's currently most powerful and highest-resolution
instruments in the infrared and visible wavelength ranges.

Initial data from these European observations will be available on 4 and 5
July, beginning a few hours after the impact, to enhance the images and
information from the Deep Impact spacecraft itself.

Highlights of the day will be:

4 July 07:15 CEST (05:15 GMT) - ESA TV live event (approx 60 minutes) based
on NASA-TV plus studio interviews and inserts, with links to ESO, MPI Lindau
(Rosetta), ESA/ ESAC (XMM/Newton) and  ESA/ESOC (mission operations).

09:30 CEST (07:30 GMT) - ESA TV update on European observations (approx 20
minutes).

10:00 CEST (08:00 GMT) - NASA media briefing - live rebroadcast by ESA  TV
(approx 30 minutes).

18:00 CEST (16:00 GMT) - ESA TV update with first Hubble image (black and
white) (approx 20 minutes).

20:00 CEST (18:00 GMT) - NASA media briefing - live rebroadcast by ESA  TV
(approx 30 minutes).


5 July 06:00 CEST (04:00 GMT) - ESA TV update with first ESO colour images




The live portion of the ESA TV production and the NASA media briefing
(07:15-10:30 CEST) can be watched at various ESA centres and elsewhere in
Europe: ESA/ESOC at Darmstadt (Germany), ESA/ESTEC at Noordwijk (the
Netherlands), ESA/ESRIN at Frascati (Italy), ESA/ESAC at Villafranca
(Spain), La Cité de l'Espace in Toulouse, ESA Headquarters in Paris and Le
Parc-aux-Etoiles at Triel-sur-Seine (France), ESO in Garching, Munich and
PPARC, London. In most places, experts will be available for interviews.

Media representatives wishing to attend the event at any of the centres are
kindly requested to fill in the attached accreditation form and return it to
the relevant contact person listed for each venue.


(*) ESA Television downlink parameters will be posted at
http://television.esa.int, about 72 hours before the event.

For further information and a daily update of the transmission schedule,
visit our website at http://television.esa.int. For all TV enquiries,
contact Claus Habfast, Tel +31 71 565 3838, Fax +31 71 565 6340, e-mail
claus.habfast at esa.int.


For further information:
ESA Media Relations Division
Tel. + 33 1  5369 7155
Fax. + 33 1 5369 7690