The VLT has been observing the comet that Depp Impact hit. One interesting comment:
Quote:
The fan is visible through the reflection of sunlight on dust grains. The fact that the big plume is not uniform in colour probably indicates that dust particles of different sizes are travelling at different speeds.
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http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMK436DIAE_0.html
XMM-Newton found the comet to be a weak source of xrays
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/SEMXA46DIAE_0.html
I note that there IS a very isolated bright spot here, and that XMM-Newton does time resolve every photon, so we could potentially learn something about the timing and energy of the xrays given off by this central spot. No data about that in the actual news story.
Hubble looked at it, but aside from seeing the timing of the development of the fan (700-1000 km/hr) I'm not seeing that Hubble did much spectroscopically.
The swift story has already been posted here.
07-July-2005, 06:28 PM
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