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Ariane repelled Tempel unveiled

I talked about yesterday's visit of the comet Tempel 1 by the U.S. Stardust probe, and the imminent departure of the 200th Ariane 5 rocket. New fallen since yesterday afternoon. Here they are.

First, by talking about Tempel, I could provide you a photo taken during the approach to nearly 2000 km of the object. Well here's comet seen by Stardust during its passage within 200 kilometers (click image to enlarge):

The researchers hoped to find on these pictures the impact crater caused by the Deep Impact spacecraft in 2005. It is less obvious to detect than expected, the soil having been shaped by final passage of the comet near the sun. But it is there. By cons, apart from being a scientist used to study what kind of shots, you can not see the crater ...

On the picture cons, the crater is marked by a yellow circle. Surprisingly, the fuzzier the picture (right) is the latest taken by Stardust, while the other date of the Deep Impact mission. But the dust immediately after impact (hard to see here as the scale is small) had made observations difficult here.

But

Astronomers are confident, and it appears that the crater is 150 meters in diameter, and it includes a small mound in the middle (it means the material ejected during the impact fell on the comet).

The shots continue to be shelled for weeks. The game will now compare the images taken by Deep Impact and Stardust by those taken in the hope of finding differences due to the last passage of the comet near the sun. (The cons: Deep Impact left Stardust right).

And finally on Tempel-1, here is a little video compiled by Ian O'Neill, astrophysicist blogger for Discovery News. With the pictures from Stardust, we relive the passage of the probe near the comet.

Liftoff of Ariane 5 postponed tonight

The 200th Ariane rocket (which calculates takes into account the old version of Ariane, the Ariane 5 model, he has stolen some sixty times) was off last night, but the countdown has stopped 4 minutes and 1 second before firing. The cause: an abnormality in the measures related to liquid oxygen tank in the cryogenic stage of the rocket. Liftoff is now scheduled for tonight at 22:50 CET (French time), 6:50 p.m. local time in Kourou, French Guiana.

say they expected a delay, it would be bad language, but it's still somewhat true. In the field, the delays are legion. Arianespace but prefers to take precautions, even multiply times. Result: Ariane rocket is one of the most reliable in the world, and has a success rate of 95% since 1979.

The new attempt may be viewed live here . The page offers a short documentary pending CNES on the ATV.