page_title: Deep Impact (spacecraft)
section_title: Contributions from amateur astronomers
hierarchical_section_title: Deep Impact (spacecraft) / Public interest / Contributions from amateur astronomers
caption_attribution_description: Deep Impact Mission certificate to Maciej Szczepańczyk (User:Mathiasrex)
context_page_description: Deep Impact was a NASA space probe launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January 12, 2005. It was designed to study the interior composition of the comet Tempel 1, by releasing an impactor into the comet. At 05:52 UTC on July 4, 2005, the Impactor successfully collided with the comet's nucleus. The impact excavated debris from the interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater. Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected. The impact generated an unexpectedly large and bright dust cloud, obscuring the view of the impact crater.
  Previous space missions to comets, such as Giotto, Deep Space 1, and Stardust, were fly-by missions. These missions were able to photograph and examine only the surfaces of cometary nuclei, and even then from considerable distances. The Deep Impact mission was the first to eject material from a comet's surface, and the mission garnered considerable publicity from the media, international scientists, and amateur astronomers alike.
  Upon the completion of its primary mission, proposals were made to further utilize the spacecraft.
context_section_description: Since observing time on large, professional telescopes such as Keck or Hubble is always scarce, the Deep Impact scientists called upon "advanced amateur, student, and professional astronomers" to use small telescopes to make long-term observations of the target comet before and after impact. The purpose of these observations was to look for "volatile outgassing, dust coma development and dust production rates, dust tail development, and jet activity and outbursts." By mid-2007, amateur astronomers had submitted over a thousand CCD images of the comet.
  One notable amateur observation was by students from schools in Hawaii, working with US and UK scientists, who during the press conference took live images using the Faulkes Automatic Telescope in Hawaii (the students operated the telescope over the Internet) and were one of the first groups to get images of the impact. One amateur astronomer reported seeing a structureless bright cloud around the comet, and an estimated 2 magnitude increase in brightness after the impact. Another amateur published a map of the crash area from NASA images.
caption: Deep Impact participation certificate of Maciej Szczepańczyk
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