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07/04/2005:

"Nasa probe strikes Comet Tempel 1"

US space agency (Nasa) scientists are celebrating after seeing a probe crash into the heart of a comet.
The washing machine-sized "impactor" collided with Comet Tempel 1 at a relative speed of 37,000km/h, throwing up a huge plume of icy debris.

The probe's mothership, the Deep Impact spacecraft, watched the event from a safe distance, sending images to Earth.

Dr Don Yeomans, a Nasa mission scientist, was ecstatic: "We hit it just exactly where we wanted to.

"The impact was bigger than I expected, and bigger than most of us expected. We've got all the data we could possibly ask for."
Full: bbc.co.uk

Deep Impact (poem)
nothing pleases
male more
than when his probe
hits home.