Hubble Telescope to view the Tempel 1 collision

Hubble Telescope to view the Tempel 1 collision

NASA is finding it hard to generate enough resources to fix the Hubble Space Telescope to prolong its life. Though, the scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute would be using the same telescope to watch the collision deep in the outer space. The incident is expected to take place on July 4 (Independence Day in the United States) and it is expected to generate cosmic fireworks, which might be visible on the planet earth itself.

Cheryl Gundy, a representative for the Space Telescope Science Institute said in a statement: “We will be here and we’ll be working.” NASA would have the best view of the show from the Deep Impact spacecraft, which would be hitting the Tempel 1 comet with an “impactor”. Hubble has experience of shooting similar incident some years back when comet Shoemaker Levy collided on the planet Jupiter.

Comets are believe to contain raw materials from the birth of our solar system and scientists hope the collision will reveal secrets contained since the comet was created billions of years ago. NASA would be hitting the comet in order to get images of the internal surface of the comet to study those. The collision would also be the first time a human made spacecraft would be intentionally hitting a comet in the space.