NASA's 4 th of july fireworks in space

As difficult as shooting a canon ball with a bullet

[Macguru]

NASA's Deep Impact mission, a first look inside a comet.

The impactor was sucessfully released into comet's path.

OOps! the profanity filter screwed up url... Google this : allintitle:"NASA - Deep Impact"

People with decent telescope on the west coast and in Asia can watch it live.

The impactor uses control software and thrusters to guide itself towards the nucleus of the comet. Using optical measurements, the impactor's AutoNav software will steer itself to the brightest object in its line of sight, the Sun-facing side of Tempel 1's nucleus.

During its final moments, the impactor will take the closet images of comet's surface ever. The kinetic energy that will be released by the collision is estimated to be the equivalent of nearly 5 tons of TNT.

[Syzygy]

Ah, I see what you mean about the profanity filter!

There are some excellent animations to be seen of what is a most remarkable event. Can't post the link though, so:

Search results [google.co.uk]

(Hope that's allowed)

The top result will take you through.

You can also watch it live through Slooh - the online observatory.

Syzygy

[Syzygy]

Time lapse movie of impact courtesy of Hubble [hubblesite.org]

Syzygy

[Macguru]

This mission was a huge success. The challenge was incredible. Congratulations to the team!

I am very curious of the outcome of all the analysis left to do.