Impact Craters on Comet Tempel 1 |
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Written by spacetravel.org
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Wednesday, 07 September 2005 22:40 |
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Comet Tempel 1 bears evidence of impact craters. This suggests that the comet has collided with asteroids or other celestial objects in its orbit around the Sun.
The first results from the Deep Impact mission team, published by Science and released at the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society held at the University of Cambridge, show that Tempel 1 contains several dozen circular features, ranging from 40 to 400 meters across, which seem to be impact craters. Tempel 1 is the first comet to show evidence of impact craters.
The results also show that the surface of the comet consists of a loosely glued layer of organic powder and ice, tens of meters deep.
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