illuminating science

Now this is the sort of thing that astronomers must live for! NASA plans to hit a comet with a projectile, then study the debris that the impact will give off. Although it might sound somewhat violent, we currently know very little about comets, particularly about what lies under their surface. Are they clumps of dirty ice (the most popular theory)? Or some other structure? What we learn about this comet, Tempel 1, will tell us about how the solar system and the planets formed, and increase our understanding of the universe.

Oh, and in case you’re worried about knocking the comet off course (towards Earth even, as most movie producers are probably considering at the moment!) then you can breathe a sigh of relief. The comet is so big compared to the probe they’re crashing into it that it would be like a bug hitting the windcscreen of a semitrailer - that comet’s going to keep on doing what it’s doing!