Formed the same time as the planets 4.5 billion years ago, comets are considered the leftover building blocks of the solar system. When the comets periodically swing close by the sun, their surfaces heat up and change, and so only their interiors preserve cosmic-origin clues.
The impactor — composed mainly of a 317-pound solid copper disk — will maneuver itself in the oncoming path of the comet and, in essence, get run over by the comet. The relative speed at the moment of the collision will be 23,000 mph, enough to vaporize the impactor. Copper was chosen because, like gold and silver, it does not react with water and will not taint the observations, and it is much cheaper.
A camera on the impactor will photograph the comet and beam back the pictures, almost all the way up until the moment of destruction. A pair of cameras on the mothership — flying by at a safe 300 miles — will document the actual strike and the ensuing eruption and crater, and send back all the images.
"We expect to provide great fireworks for all our observatories," Grammier says, "and that's exciting to do it on July Fourth."
The impactor — composed mainly of a 317-pound solid copper disk — will maneuver itself in the oncoming path of the comet and, in essence, get run over by the comet. The relative speed at the moment of the collision will be 23,000 mph, enough to vaporize the impactor. Copper was chosen because, like gold and silver, it does not react with water and will not taint the observations, and it is much cheaper.
A camera on the impactor will photograph the comet and beam back the pictures, almost all the way up until the moment of destruction. A pair of cameras on the mothership — flying by at a safe 300 miles — will document the actual strike and the ensuing eruption and crater, and send back all the images.
"We expect to provide great fireworks for all our observatories," Grammier says, "and that's exciting to do it on July Fourth."
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