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Summary

This graph shows the two spectra acquired by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope before (middle) and after (bottom) it observed NASA's Deep Impact smash into comet Tempel 1. Above them is a past spectrum of comet Hale-Bopp, which illustrates the extra detail seen by Spitzer in Tempel 1.

Spectra are light from objects spread out into various wavelengths like a rainbow. Their bumps and dips, or features, help astronomers identify the components of faraway objects, like comets.

Spitzer's pre-impact spectrum reveals chemicals in comet Tempel 1's coma, or halo, of evaporating gas and trailing dust. The post-impact spectrum indicates the composition of the ejecta thrown out by Deep Impact's probe. The ejected material greatly outshines the faint coma.

Comparing the post-impact spectrum with that from Hale-Bopp demonstrates its richness and complexity. This complexity is a result of Deep Impact's excavation of Tempel 1's insides.

Though the post-impact spectrum is still being analyzed, it shows that Tempel 1's ejecta contain the following chemicals: smectite clay; iron-containing compounds; carbonates, the minerals in seashells; crystallized silicates, such as the green olivine minerals found on beaches and in the gemstone peridot; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carbon-containing compounds found in car exhaust and on burnt toast.

Astronomers were most surprised to see clay, carbonates, and crystallized silicates because these chemicals are thought have formed in warm environments, possibly near the Sun, but away from the chilly outer neighborhood of comets. How did these compounds get inside comets? One possibility is that materials in our early solar system mixed together before being sorted out into individual bodies.

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Description Tempel 1's Secret Ingredients Revealed
Date
Source http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/image.php?image_name=ssc2005-18a
Author NASA/JPL-Caltech/C. Lisse (Johns Hopkins Univ./Univ. of Maryland)
Permission
(Reusing this file)
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/mediaimages/copyright.shtml

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see http://gallery.spitzer.caltech.edu/Imagegallery/image.php?image_name=ssc2005-18a High quality tif files also avaliable.

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Public domain This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
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7 September 2005

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current18:27, 10 July 2007Thumbnail for version as of 18:27, 10 July 20073,000 × 2,400 (1.42 MB)Anzibanonzi==Summary== This graph shows the two spectra acquired by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope before (middle) and after (bottom) it observed NASA's Deep Impact smash into comet Tempel 1. Above them is a past spectrum of comet Hale-Bopp, which illustrates the ex

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