Hubble Images Comet Tempel 1 Just Before Deep Impact Probe Arrives

Esahubble_heic0509h_1024

esahubble_heic0509h July 4th, 2005

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: P. Feldman (JHU), L. McFadden (University of Maryland),

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped an image of Comet 9P/Tempel 1 just days before the Deep Impact spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with the comet. This image, taken on the morning of 30 June, 2005, shows an undisturbed and quiet comet. This Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Wide Field Camera (WFC) image of Tempel 1 shows a slightly larger view of the comet than was seen in Hubble images released last week. This image of the comet shows the dusty inner coma around the nucleus, but the solid nucleus itself is below Hubble's resolution. The nucleus was at a distance of 134 million kilometers when the image was taken. The ACS/WFC image is a composite of data taken with blue and red filters onboard Hubble. A quiescent comet is seen in this pre-impact image along with elongated star trails. As the telescope was locked on the movement of the comet, the background stars left small trailed arcs during the time the exposures were taken.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0509h/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Comet 9P Tempel 1
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet > Nucleus
Interplanetary Body > Comet > Coma

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) -
Hubble (ACS) Optical (Pseudogreen (B+R)) -
Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) -
Esahubble_heic0509h_1280
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ID
heic0509h
Subject Category
A.2.2.1   A.2.2.2  
Subject Name
Comet 9P, Tempel 1
Credits
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: P. Feldman (JHU), L. McFadden (University of Maryland),
Release Date
2005-07-04T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0509h/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, Pseudogreen (B+R), B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
3673.0, 3811.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic0509h
Metadata Date
2005-07-02T20:56:18-04:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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