-Deep Impact Information for All Hawaii from AstroDay.net
-Special Events for the Public on the Island of Hawaii
-Science at the Telescopes
-NASA's Official Deep Impact Web Site
-Star Chart of the Location of Comet Tempel 1
in the Hawaiian Sky from the Bishop Museum
(Click "Go" Under Hawai'i's Sky Tonight Maps on the right side
menu for a .pdf map with Comet Tempel 1 shown at center)
On July 3rd at about 7:52 PM HST, comet Tempel 1 will collide with NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, and Hawaii is gearing up to witness this unprecedented event. All of the Mauna Kea telescopes will be observing the comet on the day of the impact, and there will be several observatory sponsored events to share the excitement with the public.
Deep Impact is a NASA mission to study the physical properties of comets by sending an "Impactor" to collide with comet Tempel 1 and observing the impact close-up with a "Flyby" spacecraft. This will be the first cosmic collision visible from Earth since comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter in 1994. Although major collisions in the solar system are relatively rare today, collisions played an important role the early history of the solar system. Deep Impact is the first controlled experiment that will allow scientists to study the process of collision in great detail.
The collision with the comet may also reveal the detailed chemical composition of the material that formed into the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. Comets spend most of their time in the icy outer limits of the solar system where such primordial material can be preserved unchanged below their surfaces. Scientists hope that the collision will remove enough of the comet's surface material to reveal the dust and ices hidden below, helping them to answer questions like whether Earth's water may have originated from comets.