PASADENA (AP) — A NASA spacecraft is getting up close and
personal with a small comet. Mission controllers at the NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory clapped and cheered Thursday when the Deep
Impact craft sent a signal to Earth minutes after the planned
flyby of comet Hartley 2, telling them it’s still alive.
Scientists are waiting for the first images to be beamed back
that will show them how the rendezvous went. Thursday’s mission
is not the first for Deep Impact. In 2005, it dazzled the world
when it fired a copper probe into another comet Tempel 1, giving
scientists their first look at the interior. Scientists are
interested in comets because they’re icy leftovers from the
formation of the solar system. Studying them could provide clues
to how Earth and the planets formed 4.5 billion years ago. (©
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