Astronomers Looking Forward to Deep Impact

Using telescopes around the world and in space, the Belfast scientists will be studying what happens when the spacecraft hits the comet at a speed of ten kilometres per second.

Four astronomers in the university’s Astrophysics and Planetary Science Division will be strategically placed around the globe to play an important role in Nasa’s Deep Impact mission.

The Deep Impact mission will encounter Comet Tempel-1 on July 4 this year. A copper projectile weighing a third of a tonne will strike the icy body at high velocity, excavating a crater somewhere between 40m and 400m across.

The main spacecraft will fly-past at a safe distance of 500km (300 miles) and peer into the resulting hole to discover what is inside a comet.

Professor Alan Fitzsimmons from Queen’s will be in Hawaii at the time of impact, using the Faulkes Telescope to observe the impact itself and its immediate aftermath.

"This is a fantastic experiment designed to really tell us what comets are made of, where they come from and how they evolve," he said.

Dr Stephen Lowry will be in La Palma in the Canary Islands, using the Isaac Newton Telescope to observe the dust, gas and plasma in the comet.

"Observations of the comet from earth before, during, and after the probe impact form a critical part of the mission," he said.

"Our observations of the comet’s coma and plasma tail are part of a co-ordinated world-wide campaign to record every possible outcome from the impact."

Colin Snodgrass is a PhD student and will be in Belfast but controlling the robotic Liverpool telescope, also in La Palma.

He will be studying how the make-up of the dust in the comet changes after impact.

"The impact will release material from the inside of a comet, something which we have never been able to observe before," he said.

And Dr Damian Christen will be using Nasa’s Chandra Space Telescope to study the X-rays emitted from the comet before and after the encounter.

"It was a big surprise when X-rays were discovered from comets back in 1996, and although Tempel-1 has a modest amount of X-ray emission normally, we expect a big increase in X-ray emission during and possibly after the impact."