HAL WEAVER hasn't stopped kicking himself for over two years now. In July 2000 he was leading a team that had the Hubble Space Telescope trained on Comet Linear. The comet was just nearing the point of its closest approach to the Sun when Hubble looked away and missed the most spectacular moment of all: the comet's dramatic break-up.
Linear's disintegration came as a big surprise to cometary scientists - such an event was unprecedented. Though Weaver was able to turn his before and after shots into an intriguing paper for the journal
However, Weaver might soon get another chance. NASA is planning to use a spacecraft called Deep Impact to probe Comet Tempel 1 in 2005. The mission's impact may be deeper than anyone expects: a series of recent ...
11:17 21 August 2008Subscribe today at only USD $5.95 for your first 4 issues and get New Scientist, the world's leading science & technology news magazine delivered direct to your door every week
As a magazine subscriber you will benefit from instant access to:
