NASHVILLE, Tenn.óNASA will be setting off fireworks of a different kind
this July 4, when it plans to slam an 820-pound projectile into a
10-mile wide rocky, icy comet. Vanderbilt University‘s Dyer Observatory
will provide live streaming images of the impact from the Astronomical
League‘s International Space Station Amateur Telescope near Tuscon,
Ariz., and will provide live online commentary by Vanderbilt physicist
Robert O‘Dell, former chief scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope.
The webcast will be available at: www.sonicfoundry.com.
“This is a great opportunity to study comets because we really don‘t
know if they are large rocks in space or sand dunes in space,” O‘Dell,
distinguished research professor of physics and astronomy, said.
“Punching a hole in one will hopefully tell us which model is correct.”
A NASA spacecraft named Deep Impact will fire the projectile at the
comet, Tempel 1, at approximately 12:52 a.m. CDT on the morning of July
4. The spacecraft will collect images and other data to learn more
about the composition of comets and their role in the formation of the
solar system.
Very few places on Earth will be positioned to view the collision, a
reason why Sky & Telescope magazine contacted the Astronomical
League and Vanderbilt to capture images from the Arizona site.
Vanderbilt provides the control center that operates the Arizona
telescope in partnership with the Astronomical League, an organization
of 240 local amateur astronomical societies from across the United
States, and Arizona Sky Village, which houses the telescope.
Nashville-based Technical Innovation (http://www.tillc.biz/) will
capture the live images and make them available for online viewing
using Sonic Foundry‘s Mediasiteô automated rich media recording and
publishing systems. An archive of the event will remain online for 30
days. The webcast is being co-hosted by Vanderbilt University, the
Astronomical League (http://www.astroleague.org) and Sky &
Telescope magazine (http://SkyandTelescope.com).
For more information about Deep Impact, visit: http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov.
For more Vanderbilt news, visit: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media contacts: Melanie Catania, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu
David Salisbury, (615) 343-6803
david.salisbury@vanderbilt.edu