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

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

Jun 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005xmm..pres...33.&link_type=abstract

XMM Press Release PR 33-2005

Physics

Scientific paper

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@esa.int.

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