Recent views of Comet 9P/Tempel 1
Fri Jun 17, 2005 at 21:12 UTC
Here are some images taken with the Medium Resolution Imager (MRI) camera on Deep Impact spacecraft and European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes. ESO is running a Comet Tempel observation campaign. As soon as Comet 9P/Tempel 1 is visible after the impact from Chile, and for a whole week thereafter, all major ESO telescopes - i.e. the four Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope Array at Paranal, as well as the 3.6m, 3.5m NTT and the 2.2m ESO/MPG telescopes at La Silla - will be observing Comet 9P/Tempel 1.
And finally, some more details about Deep Impact camera woes are found in this article by James Oberg.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD
This image is a compilation of 4 images that were taken on June 13, 2005, through the clear filter of the Medium Resolution Imager (MRI) camera. The spacecraft is 18,675,137.9 km (11,604,190 miles) away from comet Tempel 1, and the Sun is located to the right of the image.
Image Credit: European Southern Observatory
Taken with the EMMI instrument on ESO's New Technology Telescope at La Silla on May 31. The image is rather similar to the one taken one month earlier, which is good news as it indicates no major change in the activity of the comet, making it more easy to discern the effects of the impact.
Image Credit: European Southern Observatory
Taken on June 11 with the Danish 1.54m telescope at ESO, La Silla, Chile. Apart from the comet, a satellite is seen passing right over La Silla, marking its track through the upper right part of the image. The meteor-like trail of the satellite is caused by rapid small-scale changes in the atmosphere during the exposure. The trail is approximately 1 arcminute long, and will have been passed by the satellite in less than a second. During the 800 second long exposure, the telescope was following the comet's movement over the sky, which cause the stars to form small stripes on the exposure. Gas evaporating from the comet, forms the 100,000 km large coma of gas seen in the picture. The Sun is toward the upper left of the picture, causing the elongated form of the comets coma. Here, only 3 weeks before the impact, there is no trace of major gas eruptions in the comet, and it is hoped that this situation will continue until the impact on July 4, because no natural activity from the comet itself, will make it easier to interpret the effect of the man-made impact on July 4. The observer was Uffe Grae Joergensen from the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
