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Published Online September 8, 2005
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1118978

Research Articles

Submitted on August 17, 2005
Accepted on September 1, 2005

Deep Impact: Observations from a Worldwide Earth-Based Campaign

K. J. Meech 1*, N. Ageorges 2, M. F. A’Hearn 3, C. Arpigny 4, A. Ates 5, J. Aycock 6, S. Bagnulo 2, J. Bailey 7, R. Barber 8, L. Barrera 9, R. Barrena 10, J. M. Bauer 11, M. J. S. Belton 12, F. Bensch 13, B. Bhattacharya 14, N. Biver 15, G. Blake 14, D. Bockelée-Morvan 15, H. Boehnhardt 16, B. P. Bonev 17, T. Bonev 18, M. W. Buie 19, M. G. Burton 20, H. M. Butner 21, R. Cabanac 22, R. Campbell 6, H. Campins 23, M. T. Capria 24, T. Carroll 21, F. Chaffee 6, S. B. Charnley 25, R. Cleis 26, A. Coates 27, A. Cochran 28, P. Colom 15, A. Conrad 6, I. M. Coulson 21, J. Crovisier 15, J. deBuizer 29, R. Dekany 14, J. de Léon 10, N. Dello Russo 30, A. Delsanti 1, M. DiSanti 31, J. Drummond 26, L. Dundon 1, P. B. Etzel 32, T. L. Farnham 3, P. Feldman 33, Y. R. Fernández 23, M. D. Filipovic 34, S. Fisher 35, A. Fitzsimmons 36, D. Fong 37, R. Fugate 26, H. Fujiwara 38, T. Fujiyoshi 39, R. Furusho 40, T. Fuse 39, E. Gibb 41, O. Groussin 3, S. Gulkis 11, M. Gurwell 37, E. Hadamcik 42, O. Hainaut 2, D. Harker 43, D. Harrington 1, M. Harwit 44, S. Hasegawa 45, C. W. Hergenrother 46, P. Hirst 21, K. Hodapp 1, M. Honda 45, E. S. Howell 47, D. Hutsemékers 4, D. Iono 37, W.-H. Ip 48, W. Jackson 49, E. Jehin 2, Z. J. Jiang 50, G. H. Jones 16, P. A. Jones 51, T. Kadono 52, U. W. Kamath 53, H. U. Käufl 2, T. Kasuga 54, H. Kawakita 55, M. S. Kelley 56, F. Kerber 2, M. Kidger 10, D. Kinoshita 48, M. Knight 3, L. Lara 57, S. M. Larson 46, S. Lederer 58, C.-F. Lee 37, A. C. Levasseur-Regourd 42, J. Y. Li 3, Q.-S. Li 50, J. Licandro 59, Z.-Y. Lin 48, C. M. Lisse 30, G. LoCurto 2, A. J. Lovell 60, S. C. Lowry 36, J. Lyke 6, D. Lynch 61, J. Ma 50, K. Magee-Sauer 62, G. Maheswar 53, J. Manfroid 4, O. Marco 2, P. Martin 22, G. Melnick 37, S. Miller 8, T. Miyata 38, G. H. Moriarty-Schieven 21, N. Moskovitz 1, B. E. A. Muller 63, M. J. Mumma 31, S. Muneer 53, D. A. Neufeld 33, T. Ootsubo 64, D. Osip 65, S. K. Pandea 53, E. Pantin 66, R. Paterno-Mahler 5, B. Patten 37, B. E. Penprase 5, A. Peck 37, G. Petitas 37, N. Pinilla-Alonso 67, J. Pittichova 1, E. Pompei 2, T. P. Prabhu 53, C. Qi 37, R. Rao 37, H. Rauer 68, H. Reitsema 69, S. D. Rodgers 25, P. Rodriguez 70, R. Ruane 26, G. Ruch 56, W. Rujopakarn 71, D. K. Sahu 53, S. Sako 38, I. Sakon 38, N. Samarasinha 63, J. M. Sarkissian 51, I. Saviane 2, M. Schirmer 72, P. Schultz 73, R. Schulz 74, P. Seitzer 71, T. Sekiguchi 54, F. Selman 2, M. Serra-Ricart 10, R. Sharp 75, R. L. Snell 76, C. Snodgrass 36, T. Stallard 8, G. Stecklein 5, C. Sterken 77, J. A. Stüwe 78, S. Sugita 38, M. Sumner 14, N. Suntzeff 63, R. Swaters 3, S. Takakuwa 37, N. Takato 39, J. Thomas-Osip 65, E. Thompson 26, A. T. Tokunaga 1, G. P. Tozzi 79, H. Tran 6, M. Troy 11, C. Trujillo 29, J. Van Cleve 69, R. Vasundhara 53, R. Vazquez 80, F. Vilas 81, G. Villaneuva 16, K. von Braun 82, P. Vora 83, R. J. Wainscoat 1, K. Walsh 3, J. Watanabe 54, H. A. Weaver 33, W. Weaver 26, M. Weiler 68, P. R. Weissman 11, W. F. Welsh 32, D. Wilner 37, S. Wolk 37, M. Womack 84, D. Wooden 25, L. M. Woodney 58, C. Woodward 56, Z.-Y. Wu 50, J.-H. Wu 50, T. Yamashita 39, B. Yang 1, Y.-B. Yang 50, S. Yokogawa 37, A. C. Zook 5, A. Zauderer 3, X. Zhao 50, X. Zhou 50, J.-M. Zucconi 85

1 Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
2 European Southern Observatory, Santiago, Chile.
3 University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
4 Universite de Liege, Belgium.
5 Pomona College, Claremont, CA, USA.
6 Keck Observatory, Kamuela, HI, USA.
7 Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, Australia.
8 University College London, London, UK.
9 Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educacion, Santiago, Chile.
10 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain.
11 NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA.
12 Belton Space Initiatives, Tucson, AZ, USA.
13 Radioastronomischen Institut, Germany.
14 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
15 Observatoire Paris Meudon, France.
16 Max-Planck-Institut für Sonnensystemforschung, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany.
17 University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA.
18 Institute of Astronomy, Sofia, Bulgaria.
19 Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA.
20 University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
21 Joint Astronomy Center, Hilo, HI, USA.
22 Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Kamuela, HI, USA.
23 University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA.
24 Instituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, Rome, Italy.
25 NASA/Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, USA.
26 Air Force Research Lab, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, USA.
27 Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UK.
28 University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA.
29 Gemini Observatory, La Serena, Chile.
30 Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, USA.
31 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
32 San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
33 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
34 University of Western Sydney, Australia.
35 Gemini Observatory North, Hilo, HI, USA.
36 Queen’s University, Belfast, UK.
37 Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA.
38 University of Tokyo, Japan.
39 Subaru Telescope, Hilo, HI, USA.
40 Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
41 University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, USA.
42 Aeronomie CNRS, Verrières, France.
43 University of California, San Diego, CA, USA.
44 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
45 Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Sagamihara, Japan.
46 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
47 Arecibo Observatory, Arecibo, PR, USA.
48 National Central University, Taiwan.
49 University of California, Davis, CA, USA.
50 National Astronomical Observatories, Beijing, China.
51 Australia Telescope National Facility, Epping, Australia.
52 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan.
53 Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, India.
54 National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.
55 Kyoto Sangyo University, Kyoto, Japan.
56 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
57 Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Granada, Spain.
58 California State University, San Bernardino, CA, USA.
59 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain.; Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma, Spain.
60 Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, GA, USA.
61 Aerospace Corporation, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
62 Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ, USA.
63 National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA.
64 Nagoya University, Japan.
65 Las Campanas Observatory, La Serena, Chile.
66 CEA-Service d’Astronomie, Saclay, France.
67 Fundación Galileo Galilei & Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, La Palma, Spain.
68 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Berlin, Germany.
69 Ball Aerospace, Boulder, CO, USA.
70 European Space Agency, Villafranco del Castillo, Spain.
71 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
72 Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma, Spain.
73 Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
74 European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands.
75 Anglo-Australian Observatory, Epping, Australia.
76 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
77 University of Brussels, Belgium.
78 Leiden Observatory, Netherlands.
79 Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Florence, Italy.
80 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ensenada, Mexico.
81 NASA/Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, USA.
82 Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA.
83 College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, USA.
84 St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN, USA.
85 Observatoire de Besançon, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
K. J. Meech , E-mail: meech{at}ifa.hawaii.edu

Many observatories around the world and in space observed the collision of Deep Impact with comet 9P/Tempel 1 on UT 2005 July 4 or its aftermath. This was an unprecedented coordinated observational campaign. These data show that (a) there was new post-impact material compositionally different from that seen pre-impact, (b) the dust-to-gas mass ratio in the ejecta was much larger than pre-impact, (c) the new activity did not last more than a few days, and the comet was indistinguishable from its pre-impact behavior by July 9, and (d) there were interesting transient phenomena that may be correlated with cratering physics.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Deep Impact: Excavating Comet Tempel 1.
M. F. A'Hearn, M. J. S. Belton, W. A. Delamere, J. Kissel, K. P. Klaasen, L. A. McFadden, K. J. Meech, H. J. Melosh, P. H. Schultz, J. M. Sunshine, et al. (2005)
Science 310, 258-264
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Subaru Telescope Observations of Deep Impact.
S. Sugita, T. Ootsubo, T. Kadono, M. Honda, S. Sako, T. Miyata, I. Sakon, T. Yamashita, H. Kawakita, H. Fujiwara, et al. (2005)
Science 310, 274-278
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)