A bullet hitting a bullet with a bullet
2005-07-04 07:50:01.597678+00 by Diane Reese 2 comments
I'm struggling to stay up just a little longer for the Post-Impact Briefing from NASA's Deep Impact team. Space science is so cool: as we crowded around my laptop in the kitchen late tonight, waiting for the pecan pie to emerge from the oven, a washing machine-sized probe parked itself in the way of a speeding comet traveling at 23,000 MPH, with a larger probe meandering by snapping photos. (And we got to see them as they arrived back on earth!) The little probe-let took its own snapshots, too; my jaw dropped as I watched it documenting its way to its own demise... and then the result of impact as a plume of icy who-knows-what shot into space, in what must be some of the most dramatic space photos yet. The JPL team must be ecstatic about this result. As Rick Grammier, the project manager, said, "It's a bullet trying to hit a second bullet with the third bullet." Bulls-eye. Here's hoping for good scientific results: the p.r./drama/WOW factor was pretty darned high.