This is amazing, Nasa is smashing one of their space craft into the comet Tempel 1 in hopes to see what is inside it.
I heard this on NPR this afternoon. They were interviewing a reporter from Sky and Telescope. Apparently if you live west of the Mississippi River you will be able to see the impact on July 3rd at around 10:53pm with your naked eye.
It's a shame I'm on the east coast :'( the comet will be under the horizon when impact is to occur. It would of been a damn good excuse to dust off my ol' Meade ETX-70.
All is not lost for us eastside geeks, however. The reporter at Sky and Telescope said that we will be able to see the aftermath of the impact on the Forth of July... yeah, ok, sure bud...
All sarcasm aside, the Article at Sky and Telescope gives westsiders directions on how to locate the comet. For the eastside? There are also links to several webcasts of the event at the end of the article.
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