|
Comet Tempel 1 is about 5 x 7 km in size with an albedo of about 4%. This photo was taken by the spacecraft Deep Impact about 3 minutes before its probe (which actually took the photo!) collided with the comet. The goal was to analyze the spray of debris emitted from the interior of the comet. The surface of this comet shows some interesting detail. There are several craters in various states of preservation. The arrows A and B point to oddly smooth areas on the surface. The little arrows point to a light gray line that is a ridge illuminated by the sunlight coming from the right. This ridge indicates that the smooth area marked 'a' is a plateau. How did this odd feature form on a comet? The third large arrow points to the point of impact. Next: Impact on Tempel 1Image credit and caption information: NASA's Deep Impact web site |
|
|
|