This Will Probably Be Better Than The Movie

I love the attitude that's conveyed in this story...

Astronomers plan to slam an armchair-sized "impactor" into comet Tempel 1 to see what's inside -- and possibly help future scientists determine how to keep such space rocks from colliding with Earth.

If all goes as scheduled, the NASA Deep Impact spacecraft, set for launch on Dec. 30, will gently let go of the 820-pound impactor on July 4, 2005, and the comet's rocky part will hit it at a speed of 23,800 miles an hour.

The smash will take place some 80 million miles from Earth, and while the comet itself is 100 times too dim to be seen with unaided eyes, the material thrown up by the collision could be visible with small telescopes, the project's principal investigator said on Thursday.

"We're going to hit it and see what happens," astronomer Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland said at a briefing outside Washington.

Although I think they named the craft after a crappy movie, it's still a cool idea.