Big, Big Bang

July 3, 2005 9:28 PM

THWACK!  (NASA TV Live feed) This is just a heads up, only about 80 minutes until Deep Impact (NASA mission page) slams into comet Tempel 1. Recent discussion here.
posted by planetkyoto (122 comments total)

Chow run!
posted by buzzman at 9:34 PM on July 3, 2005

Is this viewable outside? (Louisville Kentucky) Am I better just watching the webcast you linked to? All this talk of real life fireworks got me all worked up and now I don't wanna miss all the good action by sitting in front of my laptop.
posted by genial at 9:38 PM on July 3, 2005

This mirror of the webcast seems less slammed at the moment. The Southwestern U.S. has been described as the best area for viewing.
posted by planetkyoto at 9:45 PM on July 3, 2005

sunuva beeyotch! i HAD to check MeFi before going to sleep.
good luck, NASA. I don't think I'm going to stay up to see this.
(though I've been watching for nearly half an hour now)
you're right, planetkyoto, that mirror is insanely better.
thanks.
posted by Busithoth at 9:55 PM on July 3, 2005

Winders Version: HERE.
posted by RavinDave at 10:01 PM on July 3, 2005

you're right, planetkyoto, that mirror is insanely better.

The main link looks sharper to me. I can see the corners on the flag stars, the mirror seems to have blobby stars.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:03 PM on July 3, 2005

This is good but if NASA wants to excite people like they did for the moon landing they need to do better. This is like watching Connie Chung covering the tournament of hearts curling championship with Rush Limbaugh doing color commentary.
P.S. mirror no workie.
posted by arse_hat at 10:29 PM on July 3, 2005

I've been watching the paint dry, er, the broadcast for the pas hour or so. Interesting, but pretty slow action.

Genial, I'm in lexington, peering out the window. I think we're a little too far east.
posted by tomplus2 at 10:34 PM on July 3, 2005

The mirror is working well for me. I'm glad I just checked MetaFilter, or I would have missed this.
posted by litlnemo at 10:36 PM on July 3, 2005

Maybe I should take this to metatalk, but what's with all these "no workie" comments that keep coming up? I'm pretty hard to offend, but what is this supposed to conjure up? Am I supposed to imagine a chinese laundry man?
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:39 PM on July 3, 2005

"Genial, I'm in lexington, peering out the window. I think we're a little too far east."
I'm in bed peering out the window and I think you both need to move a bit west for my deep satisfaction.
posted by arse_hat at 10:40 PM on July 3, 2005

Wow, laptops and commemorative polo shirts for all. If it wasn't such a sausage fest, I'd consider a job there.
posted by milnak at 10:41 PM on July 3, 2005

“Am I supposed to imagine a chinese laundry man?”
Yes you have discovered the key O WiSe One!
WTF?
posted by arse_hat at 10:42 PM on July 3, 2005

Yeah, I don't think is going to be as beloved as the moon landing. Right now it looks more like a bunch of cubicles at a mortgage company (where they make you wear blue or red polo shirts). The mirror is working better for me than the main site.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:42 PM on July 3, 2005

[this is good]
9 minutes to expected impact. . .
posted by spock at 10:43 PM on July 3, 2005

RED or BLUE but no WHITE? Why does NASA hate America?
posted by arse_hat at 10:45 PM on July 3, 2005

Working at NASA looks a lot less cool than I ever thought.
posted by fshgrl at 10:46 PM on July 3, 2005

Five minutes to impact. Latest raw imagery from the flyby and impactor spacecraft is really getting hammered now.
posted by brownpau at 10:49 PM on July 3, 2005

I'm not finding a single cable news station even mentioning this. Astounding.

Bet if they were craching Michael Jackson into Tempel-1, they'd be all over it.
posted by RavinDave at 10:49 PM on July 3, 2005

RED or BLUE but no WHITE? Why does NASA hate America?

The CUBICLES are white.
posted by Ironwolf at 10:50 PM on July 3, 2005

Working at NASA looks a lot less cool than I ever thought.

Naw, it's way cool! But a deeply dork kind of cool.

Shuttle launches are cool too on NASA-TV. You can watch people following checklists to put seat belts on people, and watch them taking out cloths and cleaning the rubber-oid seals on the doors, and a billion other details that can kill you dead if you don't do them right, and sometimes even if you do.

It's neat watching people do something BIG and COMPLICATED and such, where lots of people have thought long and hard about what they're doing and everyone's putting far more attention into their tiny little detail than I've ever put into *anything*. Movie commentaries can be like that too.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:52 PM on July 3, 2005

I wish they had separate channels that had nothing but the (as close to real-time) image updates from both Impactor and Flyby... just to watch the thing go down as it happens. I'm sure there will be movies of both available afterwards tho.

Oh No!!! my player says "an unknown error has occurred"!!!

Whew. Got it back.

I am one of the many people (along with many Mefites, I'm sure) whose names are recorded on a CD-R that is onboard the Impactor, so a little bit of me is going right there in space where it's happening.

As tenuous a connection as it is... some tiny bit of me has gone into space and is participating in human exploration of the Universe. That makes me feel pretty good. :)
posted by zoogleplex at 10:53 PM on July 3, 2005

Holy crap, I can hardly sit still!
posted by Frisbee Girl at 10:54 PM on July 3, 2005

it's a hit!
posted by mr.marx at 10:57 PM on July 3, 2005

BAMMMM!!!!
posted by trinarian at 10:57 PM on July 3, 2005

Woo hoo!
posted by Ironwolf at 10:58 PM on July 3, 2005

Go NASA!
posted by c13 at 10:58 PM on July 3, 2005

"I can't believe they're paying us to have this much fun?" Geez, its interesting, but fun?
posted by Grod at 10:58 PM on July 3, 2005

i guess it worked...lots of clapping.
posted by hellbient at 10:58 PM on July 3, 2005

talk about moving target!
posted by tomplus2 at 10:59 PM on July 3, 2005

That first image means nothing to me, but they sure seem jacked to see it.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 10:59 PM on July 3, 2005

look at that image of the blast! awesome!
posted by mr.marx at 10:59 PM on July 3, 2005

"More peanuts please." Hehehehe...
posted by zoogleplex at 10:59 PM on July 3, 2005

Earth is saved?
posted by hellbient at 10:59 PM on July 3, 2005

yay!
posted by dhruva at 11:00 PM on July 3, 2005

Wow, cool images! As far as I could tell, in blocky low-res on the live feed...
posted by litlnemo at 11:00 PM on July 3, 2005

It hit! And the image of the impact is incredible!
posted by Mitrovarr at 11:00 PM on July 3, 2005

Confirmed hit--158 AM EDT. What a trip.. . .
posted by rdone at 11:00 PM on July 3, 2005

Cheers, man. I love my country! We slam rockets into comets for our independence day! Take that, Guernica!
posted by trinarian at 11:01 PM on July 3, 2005

BOO-YA! EAT HOT DEATH, COMETARY SCUM! Other celestial bodies, beware: if you ain't with us, you're against us.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:01 PM on July 3, 2005

"Look at that Image. If that doesn't make the front page, then there's something wrong."
posted by Ironwolf at 11:01 PM on July 3, 2005

but where's liv tyler?
posted by mr.marx at 11:02 PM on July 3, 2005

Man, you must have gotten better feeds. Mine was pretty anti-climatic.
posted by mystyk at 11:03 PM on July 3, 2005

Um... well front page of the internal NASA papers, and the website.

National papers? Doubt it... sorry guys. But we here are very appreciative, even if the wider audience is sort of oblivious.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:03 PM on July 3, 2005

Considering exactly what we just witnessed, it is very hard to grouse -- still, it's like NASA hired MTV's Live-8 techs to film this. Endless pictures of high-fives and cheering, when we wanted to see the friggin' screen. Arrrghh!!!
posted by RavinDave at 11:04 PM on July 3, 2005

Maybe this is how Democrats can when the next election: let the public vote on which celestial bodies to slam American rockets into. It's all the cool of watching a Republican air raid without all the blood.
posted by trinarian at 11:04 PM on July 3, 2005

Go NASA!
posted by Fricka at 11:04 PM on July 3, 2005

that was pretty sweet. Hope they don't get ticketed by some intergalatic wildlife refuge officer.
posted by th3ph17 at 11:04 PM on July 3, 2005

Yeah baby you WILL remember me.
posted by arse_hat at 11:04 PM on July 3, 2005

That was VERY cool and I _love_ that we could view it live. Thanks JPL, and "hats off" to you! Thanks for the heads-up planetkyoto!
posted by spock at 11:05 PM on July 3, 2005

And next, they'll blow up the moon!
posted by bayliss at 11:05 PM on July 3, 2005

Like I said, they'll put all those images into movies we can watch later. That will be cool.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:06 PM on July 3, 2005

Mine was pretty anti-climatic

The first feed I saw was real blurry so it didn't look that stunning (or even clear) - but the feed from the mirror was cleaner and pretty damn impressive.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:07 PM on July 3, 2005

The picture on the CNN home page looks sort of cooler. ;)
posted by Ironwolf at 11:07 PM on July 3, 2005

You always remember your first comet impact.
posted by spock at 11:09 PM on July 3, 2005

bayliss, no no no, we need to put our nuclear waste into disposal areas on the moon, so that they will interact with lunar rocks and magnetism and explode with tremendous force and launch the moon off into interstellar space, thus taking our intrepid Moonbase personnel on an incredible odyssey.

;)
posted by zoogleplex at 11:09 PM on July 3, 2005

It is nothng short of miraculous that we have been able to share the experience with the good folks at JPL via "'the internets" iin unfiltered, you-are-there mode. We have learned to take a lot for granted.
posted by rdone at 11:09 PM on July 3, 2005

Man, whatever happened to Leave No Trace!

;)
posted by eriko at 11:13 PM on July 3, 2005

there's got to be a better way to get crushed ice than this ... seriously, this was very cool
posted by pyramid termite at 11:13 PM on July 3, 2005

I think it's awesome, I don't take it for granted at all, rdone.

And that from a guy who watched Neil Armstrong step off the LEM "live" on TV, with my family, on July 20 1969... at 3 1/2 years old. And yes, I remember it very well.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:15 PM on July 3, 2005

So how many were half way hoping for a laser or missile shoot up off the comet and blow up the impactor at the last minute?
posted by blm at 11:15 PM on July 3, 2005

I'm glad I stayed up for this. Now I have to wait up longer for higher-res pics.
posted by tomplus2 at 11:16 PM on July 3, 2005

"It is nothing short of miraculous that we have been able to share the experience with the good folks at JPL via "'the internets" iin unfiltered, you-are-there mode."
And this is better than watching the moon ladings live on TEH TV how?
"We have learned to take a lot for granted
Like good watchable video?
posted by arse_hat at 11:18 PM on July 3, 2005

Someone linked me to this image of the impact. I don't know how long it'll stay up, but here:

Image series.
posted by Mitrovarr at 11:20 PM on July 3, 2005

Oh, and I'm with the this is awesome group...
posted by blm at 11:20 PM on July 3, 2005

That blowed up real good!

oh, geez... Congressmen Dana Dorkbacher and Adam Shitz are congratulating the NASA cubicle cowboys... GET THEM OUT OF THERE... Next mission: send a spacecraft to collide with Rep. Dorkbacher...

And it was just reported on CNN.com: Deep Impact has been identified as former FBI official Mark Felt. When asked how Mark Felt, he said "like I just had a Deep Impact".

*Goes back to sleep on lawn*
posted by wendell at 11:22 PM on July 3, 2005

posted by brownpau at 11:23 PM on July 3, 2005

“It is nothng short of miraculous”
On second thought, wow, you must be young and I must be old. Shit video over a narrow pipe for geeks is not the same as major network coverage. Science is no longer even marginally cool. Sad really.
posted by arse_hat at 11:23 PM on July 3, 2005

Old and bitter?
posted by c13 at 11:25 PM on July 3, 2005

Dude, with all that's going on today in the fight AGAINST science, we're lucky we're even getting these feeds and fast, direct access to the photos - only because the Internet is cheap as hell to publish via. Ease up, mon.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:26 PM on July 3, 2005

No just old and bored by fuzzy video.
posted by arse_hat at 11:27 PM on July 3, 2005

I watched 60 Minutes (much) earlier this evening, and listened to the fellow whose company won the X-Prize make fun of NASA and the government, and talk about how the future of space exploration is destined for 'the people' - i.e. private companies sending rich folks into orbit for a few minutes for $200,000 a pop. It made me a little sad.

This experiment generated no 'profits' for anyone - at least in the Richard Branson or Paul Allen kind of way - and is in my opinion, much more important. It's one of those things that makes me think "my tax dollars paid for that, I helped do that". This kind of thing makes me really happy, and hopeful. We still can, collectively, do very cool things.
posted by GriffX at 11:28 PM on July 3, 2005

YAY!! That was most excellent! It just makes me more than a little giddy, as well as quite moved. Watching guys on the mission team wiping their eyes, I can only imagine what that moment was like for them.

Ditto, spock and rdone. The feed I got wasn't blocked or chunky at all. Smooth and very watchable, in fact.

There was speculation as to whether it would be bright enough to seen with the naked eye. Was anyone lucky enough to catch it with or without a telescope?
posted by Frisbee Girl at 11:28 PM on July 3, 2005

Wow, arse_hat, you're kinda enjoying being a jaded prick a little too much. Is your only purpose in this thread to point out how much this cool thing that everyone is really into actually sucks, and how lame we are for enjoying it? Go to bed.
posted by jonson at 11:28 PM on July 3, 2005

Science is no longer even marginally cool

Science is still cool, but apparently giving it significant tv coverage isn't.
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 11:29 PM on July 3, 2005

"Ease up, mon" You are right. Why make an effort when you can settle for third rate?
posted by arse_hat at 11:31 PM on July 3, 2005

No just old and bored by fuzzy video.
Can't sleep?
posted by c13 at 11:31 PM on July 3, 2005

Oye. Look, just wait for the hi-res quicktime movies they'll make over the next few days, then. Sheesh. What do you want on NASA's budget, anamorphic widescreen 3D?
posted by zoogleplex at 11:33 PM on July 3, 2005

The Deep Impact Image Viewer is starting to come back to life a little. I guess people are going to bed. Great images. WOW!
posted by tomplus2 at 11:35 PM on July 3, 2005

Wow, arse_hat, you're kinda enjoying being a jaded prick a little too much. No I’m not. Is your only purpose in this thread to point out how much this cool thing that everyone is really into actually sucks, and how lame we are for enjoying it? Go to bed. No and you are missing my point. It’s sad that a significant experiment merits no more than a marginal coverage while Opera and Tom are all over the news. It’s sad that NASA struggles. You are a tool jonson.
posted by arse_hat at 11:36 PM on July 3, 2005

"Ease up, mon" You are right. Why make an effort when you can settle for third rate?

I, for one, am very grateful for NASA's internet coverage, since I don't have cable or satellite and wouldn't otherwise be able to see it at all (maybe grainy, staticy antenna-vision if I'm lucky.)

I think the reason this isn't televised is because it's not video; what we're getting from the spacecraft is a series of unprocessed pictures and other scientific data. I know spaceflight junkies like myself love watching the NASA control room celebrate and see the blurry blue raw pictures of the impact, but most people would probably be equally well served by reading about it tomorrow in a newspaper or seeing it in a news report after image processing and data analysis.
posted by Mitrovarr at 11:37 PM on July 3, 2005

Happy Birthday, USA!
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:37 PM on July 3, 2005

Or even Oprah!
posted by arse_hat at 11:38 PM on July 3, 2005

I like Opera more. Stick with Opera.
posted by TwelveTwo at 11:39 PM on July 3, 2005

You are a tool jonson.

Tautology.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:40 PM on July 3, 2005

Or even Oprah!

Ha, arse_hat, that totally made me laugh because I couldn't figure out what 'Opera' you were referring to that would be front page news. Talk about hell freezing over, indeed.
posted by Frisbee Girl at 11:41 PM on July 3, 2005

Opera has singing and people killing folks and funny hats!
posted by arse_hat at 11:41 PM on July 3, 2005

I swear, the rapture could come, and Metafilter would spend the final hours bitching at each other. Aliens could invade and begin killing everyone, and somebody would post about how the bug-eyed monsters were really just like international Palestinians. Hell could freeze over, and you'd see posts about the brimstone-tax's negative effect on Hell's economy.

As long as Metafilter.com continues to resolve on an Internet browser somewhere, I have faith that human life on this planet will continue. I think Vernor Vinge should explore this in his next novel; it's not Usenet that will survive the Singularity - it's people bitching at each other on Metafilter.
posted by GriffX at 11:41 PM on July 3, 2005

GriffX: I hear ya bro...

There's a sense of pride one just wouldn't get on the 4th of July if even some private/mercenary company were doing our governments job for us. Ya know, like you said, we did that. I think a private company buying and launching a modified unmanned space shuttle, as has been proposed, would generate as much national pride as the latest Microsoft Windows Update batch of fixes. Giving things over to the private sector is only going to further demish science in the eyes of the public. The thrill of discovery is waning and corporate buyouts aren't the answer.
posted by trinarian at 11:42 PM on July 3, 2005

Hey chapeau_ de_ la_ cul

I was in college when the Eagle landed. . . .and I did see it on TV, 36 years ago this month. But I didn't see it on my own computer . . .without commercials.

You're as young as you feel, o cynical and acerbic person.
posted by rdone at 11:43 PM on July 3, 2005

We'll see how the media reacts and reports tomorrow. I think it'll be front page on a lot of papers, at least on Monday. I can't imagine anyone covering this live. There were too many chances for failure.

/going to look in Capone's vault.
posted by tomplus2 at 11:43 PM on July 3, 2005

Actually arse_hat, I agree that this should be "real news" worthy of national coverage, and am also sad that it isn't.

Something I just now realized is that the heyday of "space coverage," all the Apollo program TV broadcasts etc., all happened during the height of the Cold War. So maybe the huge public popularity of space programs at that time was, for the larger portion of the public, tied directly to a basic territorial conflict emotional complex - we had to "beat the Russians to the Moon," at which we succeeded.

After the actual first landing, the public rapidly lost interest; as related in the movie, only two missions later on Apollo 13, the networks had already dropped most of their coverage of the missions - of course the emergency on that flight was a national crisis, but after that the coverage dropped off again.

While most of us here are interested in the science and knowledge for its own sake, maybe the greater public is only interested when it gets keyed into their "lizard brain" root emotions.
posted by zoogleplex at 11:47 PM on July 3, 2005

I watched the whole thing on NASA TV, and it has made me very happy. This kind of thing is what this country is good for.
posted by interrobang at 11:50 PM on July 3, 2005

Mitrovarr: What we were seeing was video. I used to get it at my parents house back in the late 90's. It would normally show endless beautiful streams of video from the shuttle with the camera pointing down at earth. You'd see some islands and mountains or deserts and try you're damndest to guess which continent it was (without a north-up view, it's hard).

What was really neat was watching the video feed for a sat or shuttle launch. As a teenager obsessed with Clarke and Sagan, I'd watch the initial liftoff then run out to our dock on the St. Johns River (south of Jacksonville) to catch the ascent. Within a minute you could see the rockets come up over the horizon and treeline. I' watch it till it hit the upper atmosphere and the plume stopped. I'd come back in and for some of the sats and shuttle launches, they attach a RocketCAM which would be pointed down on the rocket. You could watch Florida gradually slip away as it tilted and dropped it's boosters and various stages.

Neat, neat stuff growing up in Florida :-)
posted by trinarian at 11:50 PM on July 3, 2005

"Tautology." George_Spiggott
True. I apologize for trying to slip that cheep shot in.
But I didn't see it on my own computer . . .without commercials
Yes you saw it on your TV with no commercials. I was 7 and had my dad wake me a 3 AM so I could watch it. Settling for this is sad.
posted by arse_hat at 11:50 PM on July 3, 2005

arse_hat

If you're saying at least the last five minutes of feed should have been on CNN, I agree completely. We shouldn't be reduced to watching newsworthy events on shitty Real Video so CNN/Fox can talk moew about missing white girls on tropical islands infested with black boys (you know they're sending damn F-16's to look for her [body]!?!).

I can't vouch that it wasn't on CNN, though. Indeed, I was mezmorized enough watching a full-screen RealVideo feed. So pure speculation.
posted by trinarian at 11:56 PM on July 3, 2005

Thanks imageshack, somethingawful. This is really amazing.

on preview: also really color coordinated :]
posted by moift at 11:57 PM on July 3, 2005

trinarian, yup. Just bitter cause stuff that might mean something to us as a race means less than crime-O-the-day.
posted by arse_hat at 12:01 AM on July 4, 2005

Well, I, for one, wasn't even born yet. So I don't have much to compare it to. And it would be nice to just enjoy it, without you yapping about the good old days. Being old does not really mean you have to be an old fart.
posted by c13 at 12:02 AM on July 4, 2005

NO but being young does not mean you have to be stupid.
posted by arse_hat at 12:06 AM on July 4, 2005

on reading thread: my image was already posted as a link. oh well. failure :d
posted by moift at 12:09 AM on July 4, 2005

Actually the video feed from the moon was pretty damn grainy and lo-res. Looked a lot like what some webcasts look like now, strangely enough. Considering the bandwidth available and the analog transmission from 240,000 miles away, in 1969 it was the most amazing thing ever, though.

And the LEM ran on a computer that my PalmPilot can run rings around. *boggles*
posted by zoogleplex at 12:10 AM on July 4, 2005

Wow! Thanks for that bit of wisdom. Whod've thought...
posted by c13 at 12:14 AM on July 4, 2005

Shoot the moon!
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 12:54 AM on July 4, 2005

If you have DIRECTV, you can get NASA TV, which carried the same video feed as the two websites, only less fuzzy, glitchy, and badly compressed. But still kind of like watching paint dry.

NASA could learn a thing or two about live video production from any of the major sports or news organizations, or even my toddler. I laughed at the big blurry head repeatedly crossing in front of the off-angle video shot focused on the big video screen. Then the commentator (or someone, it wasn't clear who, really) kept saying after the impact was confirmed, "Oh wow, that's the greatest picture ever. That's an amazing picture. Wow, that's a great picture. Y'know, that's just a terrific picture." THEN PUT THE DAMN THING ON THE VIDEO FEED SO WE CAN SEE IT!

For all my bitching above, it was still worth my nickel.
posted by surlycat at 1:08 AM on July 4, 2005

Archive.org has a NASA film about Apollo 11 which is very likely to contain that old video mentioned upthread.
posted by mwhybark at 1:24 AM on July 4, 2005

My girlfriend and I were talking earlier tonight about a great documentary we'd both seen made by NASA about Apollo 13, mwhybark. Is that available somewhere?
posted by interrobang at 1:41 AM on July 4, 2005

What Surlycat Said.

"uhh, dad, I borrowed the probe and I, uh, sort of, well, err,crashed it."

"What, Temple-1? We're supposed to hit Temple-2! Mr. Spacely's vacation home is on Temple-1!!!"

and, of course.

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be a comet shattering kaboom. Oh, there it is, lovely, yes."
posted by eriko at 6:11 AM on July 4, 2005

GriffX writes "listened to the fellow whose company won the X-Prize make fun of NASA and the government, and talk about how the future of space exploration is destined for 'the people'"

Yep, corporations will manage to suck all the soul out of going into space.

"So maybe the huge public popularity of space programs at that time was, for the larger portion of the public, tied directly to a basic territorial conflict emotional complex - we had to 'beat the Russians to the Moon,' at which we succeeded."

Of course it was. It was even the reason the goal was the moon instead of the better long term goal of a permant space station, the Americans knew they hadn't a chance in hell of beating the Russians to a manned space station so they set the target at something the felt they had a chance at.
posted by Mitheral at 7:02 AM on July 4, 2005

posted by mecran01 at 8:04 AM on July 4, 2005

When Tempel1 comes back from behind the sun towards Earth with a black eye and a sunburn he's gonna be some pissed. Payback'll be a bitch.
posted by CynicalKnight at 8:05 AM on July 4, 2005

Well, not to "dissappoint" anyone, but the comet impact is the first story on The BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and the second story on The New York Times, and sort of mentioned on the front page of Fox News. Sadly, WaPo and most of the other newspaper sites don't seem to give a shit.

CNN also showed a live feed, a la NASA TV.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:27 AM on July 4, 2005

No, dirigibleman, it's above the fold at WaPo, which also had a prominently featured notice that it was expected to happen soon before the impact, which I don't think those others did.
posted by Zurishaddai at 8:34 AM on July 4, 2005

Have we talked about the crazy Russian lady yet?
posted by mr.marx at 8:38 AM on July 4, 2005

So why couldn't she predict the event beforehand and start suing NASA earlier?
posted by c13 at 8:42 AM on July 4, 2005

She did.
posted by mr.marx at 8:51 AM on July 4, 2005

The impact movie is pretty cool. Also the before/after shot of the comet as seen by Hubble.

As far as production goes, NASA should have secured the rights to play the Dave Matthew's Band song "Crash" during it's live telecast.

Seriously, those complaining about crappy video apparently have no experience with webcasting. The higher the quality of the video, the more people you exclude from receiving the broadcast because of bandwidth limitations. My feed looked pretty dang good for only being a 45K stream (apparently auto-negotiated based on my 128K ISDN connection - slow, I know). So NASA's decision was to provide SOMETHING to even low bandwith users.
posted by spock at 9:15 AM on July 4, 2005

Alas, dirigibleman, it is nowhere on the physical NYTimes front page. It is merely on the web version. Perhaps they assume that the demographic reading on the web has different priorities.
posted by Aknaton at 9:33 AM on July 4, 2005

Have you noticed that the late baseball scores aren't in your morning newspaper either? Cut-off time is normally around 10pm to get the paper tp press. Anything later than that would be in the FOLLOWING day's paper.
posted by spock at 9:38 AM on July 4, 2005

Hurrah.

Now we can just attach something that 'splodes in a bigger way and send that incoming Impact Event quality comet streaking by us by a few extra miles...

Interesting how they collided close to one end of this rock - wonder how its trajectory was affected?
posted by bobloblaw at 11:00 AM on July 4, 2005

The chose the that end because it would allow the best vantage point for both the observation craft and earth-based observatories.
posted by betaray at 11:33 AM on July 4, 2005

Allow me to Spicoli this thread: Awesome! Totally Awesome!
posted by Smedleyman at 12:57 PM on July 5, 2005