Deep Impact (spacecraft)

Deep Impact was a NASA space probe designed to study the interior composition of the comet 9P/Tempel 1. Launched on January 12, 2005, the mission's primary goal was to impact the comet's nucleus with a copper impactor, excavating material that would then be analyzed by instruments on the flyby spacecraft. This process aimed to provide insights into the primordial composition of comets, believed to contain relatively unchanged material from the early solar system.

The Deep Impact spacecraft consisted of two main components: the flyby spacecraft and the impactor. The flyby spacecraft housed the primary scientific instruments, including high-resolution cameras and spectrometers used to observe the impact event and analyze the ejected material. The impactor was a smaller probe released by the flyby spacecraft approximately 24 hours before impact. It was designed to collide with the comet's nucleus at a high velocity.

The impact occurred on July 4, 2005. Instruments on the flyby spacecraft, as well as ground-based telescopes and space-based observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope, recorded the event. The impact created a large plume of dust and gas, revealing material from beneath the comet's surface.

Data from the Deep Impact mission provided valuable information about the composition, structure, and formation of comets. While the primary mission was completed successfully, the flyby spacecraft was later repurposed for an extended mission known as EPOXI (Extrasolar Planet Observation and Deep Impact Extended Investigation), which involved flybys of comet 103P/Hartley 2 and further observations of exoplanets. The spacecraft was eventually lost in 2013 due to communication failure.