Deep Impact - July 4, 2005

These are images of periodic Comet 9P/Tempel 1 taken before and after the impact of the NASA spacecraft Deep Impact (Impactor probe)




60 second exposure on 27 June 2005 at 11:06:32 UT
North is to the top of the image. The comet shows a small coma with a very slight tail off to the bottom left. This image was taken about 7 days before the impact.


60 second exposure on 4 July 2005 at 11:27:05 UT
This image was taken approximately five and one half hours after impact. Note the considerable increase in both brightness and apparent size.


60 second exposure on 5 July 2005 at 12:35:57 UT
The comet is about the same brightness as the last image, but the coma has apparently increased in size (as the ejecta diffuses out from the nucleus), and the tail is more apparent.


60 second exposure on 6 July 2005 at 12:01:03 UT
The comet is decreasing in brightness as the material diffuses outward, some of which is probably being defleccted by solar photons into the tail.


Images courtesy Alex Liu, Norcape Observatory

Image Details

Telescope: Meade 12" LX200
Focal reducer: f/6.3 Effective focal length 2100mm
Camera: SBIG ST-7E
Orientation: In all frames North is up and East to the left.



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