NASA’s Deep Impact & Comet Tempel 1 : Deep Space Fireworks on Fourth of July

America celebrates its Independence Day on fourth of July with a successful collision of NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft & Comet Tempel 1.

After 172 days and 431 million kilometers (268 million miles) of deep space travel, NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft successfully reached comet Tempel 1 today. The collision between the coffee table-sized impactor and city-sized comet occurred at 1:52 a.m. EDT.

The goal of the Deep Impact mission is to provide a glimpse beneath the surface of a comet, where material from the solar system’s formation remains relatively unchanged. Mission scientists expect the project will answer basic questions about the formation of the solar system, by offering a look at the nature and composition of the frozen celestial travelers known as comets.

Real time collision images are visible from the NASA website.