We looked inside [a comet] for the first time.
Our analysis of data produced by Deep Impact is revealing a great deal, much of it rather surprising.
We get one chance lasting 800 seconds to take all of the key data from impact until we've flown past.
I'm not convinced that there is a solid layer under there. If you look at the icy dust and the density we've deduced for the nucleus itself, something like 75 or 80 percent of the nucleus is empty space. So that tells me that there may be no solid layer.
Comets are more different than we thought they were.
This will be the biggest contribution we will make. Many hydrocarbons are in higher abundance than one would expect, and there are many others we haven't identified yet.
The comet is mostly empty, mostly porous. Probably all the way in, there is no bulk ice. The ice is all in the form of tiny grains.
The comet is mostly empty.
Copyright © 2024 Electric Goat Media. All Rights Reserved.