Scientific Results of NASA's Deep Impact Mission

On July 4, 2005, NASA deliberately collided a 700-pound spacecraft with comet Tempel 1 at a speed of 22,500 miles per hour. The object of this kamikaze mission was to find out what is below a comet's surface. Although the dust blown out by the impact obscured the final crater, the mission swept away old ideas about comets and revealed a new vision of cometary structure. This lecture will discuss the mission itself, some old ideas about comets and the new ideas that came from this daring experiment.