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Comet ejected tons of water

The Nasa Deep Impact spacecraft that slammed into Comet Tempel 1 last year kicked out at least 250,000 tonnes of water; observed on the Swift telescope.

The orbiting Swift’s "day job" is to hunt down the colossal bursts of gamma-ray radiation that flash randomly across the cosmos. However, on 4 July last year, it was among a fleet of space and ground-based telescopes asked to watch what happened when Nasa’s Deep Impact probe released a 370kg projectile into the path of the 14km-wide Comet Tempel 1.

But whilst the other observatories made relatively quick studies and then turned away, Swift continued to look at the impacted "ice mountain" on and off for more than 60 days. Its patience paid off.

Swift’s X-ray Telescope (XRT) saw the comet continue to release water for some 13 days after the initial event, with a peak five days on from the collision. X-rays provide a direct measurement of the colossal amount of water thrown out as a result of the impact - the Earth-equivalent volume of about 100 Olympic sized swimming pools.

The question is why the comet continued to eject material for so long after the initial impact.

posted by: kyawoo at 20:51 | link | comments |
comets

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