Java
Sep 2nd, 2006, 06:45 PM
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/30aug_smart1.htm
Just a note and personal opinion on my part: there's a lot of astronmers (both amateur and professional) hoping to 'see' the impact tonight but I suspect there will be some disappointments on account of the fact that this spacecraft's orbital speed isn't all that high and thus the impact will be a lot less than what was experience during the 'Deep Impact' mission where a comet was hit by a large heavy copper projectile at more than 7 times the speed at which Smart-1 is travelling. Well, as of now there's only a few hours left to wait and 'see', or not see...
Just a note and personal opinion on my part: there's a lot of astronmers (both amateur and professional) hoping to 'see' the impact tonight but I suspect there will be some disappointments on account of the fact that this spacecraft's orbital speed isn't all that high and thus the impact will be a lot less than what was experience during the 'Deep Impact' mission where a comet was hit by a large heavy copper projectile at more than 7 times the speed at which Smart-1 is travelling. Well, as of now there's only a few hours left to wait and 'see', or not see...