NASA Probe Approaches Comet Spewing Deadly Gas

The probe Deep Impact is currently approaching the comet Hartley 2. Hartley 2 was discovered in 1986. It is a periodic young comet that passes by earth every 6.3 years. It is considered a dwarf comet at only 0.93 (1.5 km) miles across. It is a part of the Jupiter family of comets (comets with periods less than 20 years). The most interesting thing about this comet is that there is poisonous cyanide gas spewing from the comets core of ice and rock.

On Thursday November 4th 2010 at roughly 10:00 a.m. ET the deep impact prove will come within 435 (700km) miles from the comet making it the fifth time that a comet has ever been observed from a close distance. The deep impact spacecraft has been chasing Hartley 2 for months and has been taking pictures along the way.





Roughly 18 hours before coming into closest proximity with the comet the probe will begin the “encounter phase” of the mission. The probe will position itself so that its three imagers (two imagers that can see in infrared wavelengths, and one that can see in visible light as a back up) can lock onto the comet for 24 hours plus. However in doing this it will point the probes high-gain antenna away from earth resulting in a delay before the pictures can be delivered back to earth, instead they will be stored in two on board computers. As soon as the comet has passed, which will not take long because the probe will be moving at 27,000 mph, scientists will reposition the probe so that it can send the pictures back to earth. While doing this the probe will continue to take pictures of the tail end of the comet.

However there are some risks to this mission. Scientists have chosen to stay 435 miles away from the comet for numerous reasons. The gassy pores of the comet could harm the probe if it comes too close, the brightness of the comet could harm the imagers and there is also a slight chance that the comets luminous jets may fool its navigation system.

Astronomers hope to gain a lot of information from this mission. They have struggled to understand comets for years due to their highly unpredictable icy bodies. This mission will help scientists understand what these comets are made of and where they come from. Due to its unusually high activity a close study of its spewing jets and gas clouds could also give us clues about the behavior and build of comets. Overall studying this comet could give scientists a better idea about how the universe came to be.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39989774/ns/technology_and_science-space/