PIA07880: Tempel 1 First Op-Nav
On April 25, 2005 NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft obtained its first optical navigation (Op-Nav) image of comet Tempel 1. At the time the picture was taken the distance between spacecraft and comet was 64 million kilometers (39.7 million miles) away.
 Target Name:  Tempel 1
 Is a satellite of:  Sol (our sun)
 Mission:  Deep Impact 
 Spacecraft:  Deep Impact
 Instrument:  Impactor Targeting Sensor (ITS) 
 Product Size:  872 x 714 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  JPL 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA07880.tif (623.5 kB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA07880.jpg (58.06 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

figure 1 for PIA07880: Tempel 1 first optical navigation
Tempel 1 First Optical Navigation

On Monday, April 25, the Deep Impact spacecraft obtained its first optical navigation (Op-Nav) image of comet Tempel 1. At the time the picture was taken the distance between spacecraft and comet was 64 million kilometers (39.7 million miles) away. The exposure -- known as a "negative image" -- is used by the spacecraft team to assist in navigation and instrument calibration. The spacecraft will start imaging the comet on a regular basis in about 10 days.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL/UMD

Image Addition Date:
2005-04-27