**In Your Face: Close-Up Look at Doomed Comet (Tempel 1: 72 pics!)

NASA’s Stardust-Next spacecraft flew past Comet Tempel 1 at 8:38 Pacific time Monday night, snapping photos as it sped by.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/7e5f3557c463.gif[/atsimg]

In 2005, the Deep Impact probe blew a crater into Tempel 1 with an 800-pound metal slug. Since then, Tempel 1 has completed an orbit around the sun, losing ice and other material to the sun’s hot glare along the way. The new images will give astronomers new insight into how a comet is slowly destroyed by the sun. The spacecraft took a total of 72 science images, 46 as it approached and 26 as it receded from the comet. As it approached, it snapped pictures once every 6 seconds. Stardust-Next, which originally launched as “Stardust” in 1999, swooped within 124 miles of Tempel 1’s icy, dirty core at about 24,300 miles per hour.

The new images started arriving at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, about three hours after the spacecraft made its closest approach. Each image took 15 minutes to download. The Stardust crew wanted to download the five closest images first, but an unknown error sent the photos in the order in which they were taken. The astronomers had to wait until 6 a.m. Tuesday Pacific time to get the good stuff.

Stardust-Next shot photos of new terrain that had never been seen before, as well as areas on Tempel 1 that had been covered by Deep Impact. The images showed that several regions changed significantly over the past five years. One of the most interesting areas looks like a blanket of material that erupted from beneath the comet’s surface and flowed downhill. That flow is now receding due to erosion, Veverka said.

Source: www.wired.com...
Link to images: Enjoy: www.nasa.gov...

Just too cool-that we are even able to document this. I know, it's a rock-flying around. No big deal. Well, maybe so.

However, I think the real story is us being in position to take the pics and then send them back to us.

It there are UFO/Aliens, they must howl when they watch and see what we are doing. Probably so primative to them-what we call the cutting edge of Space Exploration... they must call Work..

Nice find, S&F

reply to post by TheAnnouncementMovement


Didyou get a chance to check out the 72 pics.

Cool as heck-IMO. Almost movie studioish-surreal.

I suppose all space rocks can look alike but this looks almost exactly like Phobos!




And did I read they blasted this rock with an 800 pound 'slug'?
Who'd they employ?...a bunch of cavemen with slings?? Why do I doubt that and think it was probably more like a laser of some sort?

(And people wonder what they may be seeing in their skies when they THINK they're seeing laser-like space wars!)
If we only knew what was REALLY going on out there..................

reply to post by Human_Alien


I don't know about looking exactly like but I see what you are saying.

Now, about this 800 pound slug thing. More? can just let that one hang out there.

Did you read/see that here on ATS in a forum post or a thread?

reply to post by anon72


Remember boys and girls, even though its obvious that the comet is a solid chunk of rock, we must continue to pretend its actually a fluffy snowball or else the plasma cosmologists might throw the standard cosmologists out of a job.

The horror.

Anyone who thinks those images clearly depict a gigantic snowball is a living in a fantasy land.

For more REAL information on comets, look here:
sites.google.com...

reply to post by anon72


you HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING...
WHO THE HELL IN HIS RIGHT MIND WOULD EVER BELIEVE WHAT N-ever A S-traight A-nswer is saying?!
man we need some more brains here on earth...

reply to post by anon72


THAT'S THE PROBLEM ...
the studio ...

Wow, just imagine that teeming with frozen microbes ready to land on a fitting planet, evolving into intelligent life billions of years from now. The one thing that's comforting about death is that everything keeps on going
Nice find op!

reply to post by OleMB


I hadn't thought of it like that. I like it.

A pleasant thought about what undoubtably will be a horrific ending to life as we know it. Somewhere-the chance of life is out there-striving to live!

Star Thanks for the mental change up

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