What was Deep Impact?
NASA wanted to find clues to the formation of the solar system and more about the structure and composition of comets by crashing a bolt of copper into the comet Tempel 1. The resultant deep crater in its mantle or upper crust has allowed scientists to:- Observe how the crater forms
- Measure the crater's depth and diameter
- Determine the changes produced by the impact
- Measure the composition of the interior of the crater and its ejecta
Why not get more information by downloading the Deep Impact FAQ Word document.
Educational resources
Deep Impact was a major space research mission sponsored by NASA. However it can be used to support several aspects of the UK science curriculum. Resources available for download include:
- Colouring activity - art, primary, Adobe PDF file
- Crossword - literacy, KS3, MS Word file
- Assembly template - general, all, MS Word file
- Collision energy - maths, KS4, MS Word file
- Comet-spacecraft distance - maths, KS4, MS Word file
- Word Search - literacy, KS2, MS Word file
- Impactor speed - maths, KS4/A level, MS Word file
- What are impact craters? - physics, KS4, MS Word file
- The physics of impact cratering - physics, KS4, MS Word file
- Light travel time - maths, KS4, MS Word file
The NASA educational material relating to the mission can be found at the Deep Impact website. There are also Adobe PDF factsheets in colour or greyscale available for download.
View some of the amazing NASA images of the Deep Impact event here.
A sequence of Faulkes Telescope North images processed to show jet activity coming from the nucleus of Tempel-1. View more Faulkes Telescope images here.
Deep Impact trivia
- The flyby spacecraft is the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.
- The impactor that will collide with the comet is 1m x 1m and weighs 370kg.
- The combined Deep Impact spacecraft weighs about 1 ton.
- The closing speed of the comet is ten times faster than a speeding bullet.
- The crater will be the length of a football stadium and several stories deep.
- It takes 7.5 minutes for the flyby spacecraft signal to reach Earth.