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Comet 9P/Tempel 1 was discovered by Ernst Wilhelm Leberecht in 1867and has visited Earth's vacinity ~23 times since then; however, none of those previous visits will compare to this year's. On July 4th, 2005 (July 3rd, Tucson time) a probe released from NASA's Deep Impact mission will hit the comet, producing a crater and kicking up enough dust to make the event visible to backyard stargazers. See if you can make it out amongst all those fourth of July fireworks. Here'e where to look.
Scientists hope to learn about the the differences between the interior of a cometary nucleus and its surface by punching a hole into the comet. Scientists will also gather data about how the crater from the impact forms and what it's final morphology can tell us about the comet's material properties.
David Levy intends to capture the event for Project Skywatcher and a new annimation will be posted here shortly after the event.
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