Description
Click on the image for the animation
This movie begins with the launch of NASA's Deep Impact on Jan. 12, 2005, from Cape Canaveral, Fla. On July 4, 2005, the mission released a probe into Comet Tempel 1, revealing its pristine, inner material. The spacecraft was later repurposed as the EPOXI mission, so-called after its two extended components: the extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The rest of the movie shows a sped-up view of the spacecraft's circular journey, first to Comet Tempel 1 (purple), and then to its Nov. 4 destination, Hartley 2 (blue).
