9P/Tempel 1

9P/Tempel 1 — comet, shown live in Cosmoscope, a real-time 3D map of the universe.

The first comet humanity ever punched: NASA’s Deep Impact slammed a copper slug into it on 4 July 2005 to read the debris — and Stardust flew back six years later to photograph the scar.

Nucleus
~7.6 × 4.9 km
Period
5.58 years
Famous for
Deep Impact fired a projectile into it, 2005
Revisited
Stardust-NExT photographed the crater, 2011

Seeing 9P/Tempel 1 in real time

Cosmoscope puts 9P/Tempel 1 at its true position in the solar system, computed from JPL-derived ephemeris and updated continuously. Open the live 3D view to see, in real time, how far 9P/Tempel 1 is from the Sun and from Earth right now, how many minutes or hours light takes to cross that gap, and how fast it is moving along its orbit. Scrub the timeline to place 9P/Tempel 1 where it was on any past date, or where it will be years from now.

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