Smashing probe of a comet is cheered on its way to July 4 rendezvous

By Larry Klaes

Two days before Cornell space researchers' eyes turned to Saturn, they were focused on another space shot -- this time a comet known as Tempel 1. A NASA mission, Deep Impact, the first space probe designed to ram a comet to study its interior, successfully began its journey at 1:48 p.m. on Jan. 12 atop a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

About two dozen researchers and graduate students watched the launch on NASA-TV from the third floor of the Space Sciences Building. The audience quietly cheered as the rocket rode into the sky and Mission Control at Kennedy Space Center announced the successful completion of each phase of the flight into space.

Joseph Veverka, professor of astronomy and chairman of the Department of Astronomy, is one of two Cornell science investigators for the Deep Impact mission and was in Cape Canaveral for the liftoff.

The other Cornell science team member, senior researcher Peter Thomas, watched the launch from Cornell. Thomas will be waiting to measure the shape of the nucleus of the target comet when the probe arrives July 4, after a journey of six months and 268 million miles. "I want to know how many craters the comet has," said Thomas. This, he said, will help geologists roughly calculate the age of the surface of Tempel 1.

Thomas also wants to know how the comet is structured, something that Deep Impact will likely determine when its 820-pound impact craft slams into Tempel 1 at 23,000 miles an hour. "Is it fluffy, solid ice or something in-between," Thomas asks.

The crater made by the impactor's solid copper ball, which could be as wide as a sports stadium and as deep as a seven-story building, will help determine just how tightly put together this ancient body is.