[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

Well - there was never any mention of an extension at any of the press confs. and when pressed my a reporter, the reponse was that indeed, they would simply prepare for a sun-safe hybernation state after playback was complete.

Doug

[Decepticon]

Wow! new image up.

http://deepimpact.umd.edu/gallery/HRI_937_1.html

[Bob Shaw]

Christ.  If Keith Cowing is to be believed, NASA is now cranking up to throw away another perfectly good spacecraft:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1041

This, really, is quite insane if true.

Bruce:

Hopefully, Mike Griffin will knock the bean-counters' heads together!

Failing that, can we pass the hat around?

Bob Shaw

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Well - there was never any mention of an extension at any of the press confs. and when pressed my a reporter, the reponse was that indeed, they would simply prepare for a sun-safe hybernation state after playback was complete.

Doug

The word "mothballed" came up at the press conference when talking about a possible mission extension.

[MiniTES]

The word "mothballed" came up at the press conference when talking about a possible mission extension.

The article's now been updated and says there will be an extension. Great! :D

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

I dont see anything about the mission being extended....

edit: nevermind, I found it, had problems loading the site.

[edstrick]

I've run a couple bandpass filter enhancements on the newly released "Tempel alive with light" captioned imagel.

The e2 enhancement used statistics of a box on the bulk of the nucleus to run the enhancement in an attempt to maximize geologic detail in this hi rez cam image. Certainly, the deconvolved image's resolution is greatly improved above that of the raw data... compare the sunlit wall of the caldera-like depression at the terminator with the defocused pattern in the image I enhanced of the initial plasma-ball from the impact. But, as usual with deconvolution, there are a lot of secondary artifacts from the deconvolution next to high contrast edges in the image, imperfectly decalibrated image artifacts make nasty fringes, and the random noise level of the data is enhanced and turned into a characteristic texture. Also, deconvolution, at least at this stage, is impossible in a fringe surrounding the saturated data in the core of the impact plume.

I do expect, however, that the deconvolved images of the nucleus from near closest approach, will have resolution comparable or better than the best whole-nucleus impages from the impactor. At least I hope so!

The e3 enhancement used statistics from a box on the plume, mostly beyond the limb of the nucleus, and dramatically brings out texture in the ejecta plume structures. "Plumelets" <new word.. got a better one?> seem to change shape and brightness with distance from the impact. A plumelet at 10:00 clock angle appears curved or one segment grows fainter and another grows brighter with distance from the nucleus. A plumelet at 8:30 to 9:00 seems non-radial to the impact, with a "head" that is detached from the source. When deconvolved tif images of the entire sequence of these images become available, the changes in these structures over time should be both spectacular and informative.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[alan]

Rocky material seen by Gemini
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/de...ini.html?772005

[dilo]

Rocky material seen by Gemini

Interesting UV observation also from Swift (same source):
http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish/sw...act.html?672005

Meanwhile, I made a "wallpaper" mosaic of most significant impact images (I preferred upside orientation simply because illumination seem more natural):

And this is a nice anaglyph made with 1st and 4th image (PIA02127 from impactor and PIA02137 "Tempel alive with light"), giving an idea of the shape of nucleus and also of the impact location...

[djellison]

Anaglyph = cool

Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Is it possible that some of the plume structures are caused by diffraction effects, rather than being physically there?

[Bill Harris]

The plume is really there. It has the appearance of a bright overexposed flash because the image exposure is made to capture the dark comet surface. Remember, the comet is very very black in color. The plume is faint, but much less so than the comet body.

--Bill

[Bob Shaw]

Bill:

I don't doubt that the plume is there! It's the structures within it I'm thinking of - S&T (I think) ran an article four or five years ago about 'Moonbows' and other atmospheric phenomena and how they'd work in different atmospheres and with different crystals in the upper reagions of such atmospheres, and I was wondering if we're seeing what we think we are!

Bob Shaw

[dvandorn]

Very true -- I was expecting to see more obvious interaction between the ejecta plume(s) and the coma, some type of concentric shock pattern that would occur when the ejected particles and gasses plowed through the relatively motionless haze of gas and dust that surrounds the nucleus. But what we seem to be seeing is pure ballistic motion with radial structuring (probably controlled by topography at the impact point).

You know, Bruce asked the question earlier in this thread (or a related one) as to why this mission got approved in the first place, since its scientific harvest would be rather thin. I think one of the more interesting benefits, maybe one of the more important ones, is the observation of impact dynamics. Impact has apparently shaped every rocky/icy body in the Universe -- it's nice to finally get a first-hand look at an impact of *any* size and observe the real-world dynamics. As I've stated before, models are only good for certain things, and unless a model is as complex as the phenomenon it attempts to predict, it will never be completely accurate. Seeing and measuring an actual impact, on *any* body and of *any* size, helps us refine our models and understand the actual processes in far greater detail. I just wish we could now land at the crater we made and examine *it* in detail...

-the other Doug

[Decepticon]

Could DI revisit the same comet in the future?