Abstract
WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN you kick up a whole lot of debris from an icy comet under the watchful eye of a powerful infrared telescope-spectrometer? An up-close look at the chemical composition of the heavenly body. A large team of astronomers and other scientists has just published the first detailed analysis of infrared emission spectra recorded during last year's Deep Impact mission to comet Tempel 1. The results point to an assortment of minerals, water, and other inorganic and organic materials as the stuff of which comets are made ( Science , DOI: 10.1126/science.ll24694). The study provides an unprecedented examination of the chemical nature of the interior of comets, which are thought to be composed of leftover debris from the formation of the solar system, and may help answer questions regarding the evolution of celestial objects. In a spectacular conclusion to a six-month, 80 million-mile journey, NASA's Deep Impact vehicle sent a massive impactor smashing into ...
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