Deep Impact smashes all expectations: “Comet Tempel 1 has smashed into the Deep Impact probe, producing a blast of light that prompted the mission control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, US, to erupt into cheers and applause.

Scientists and engineers jumped in the air, pumped their fists and hugged one another. Not only had their mission to deliberately collide with a comet for the first time succeeded perfectly, but the prospect of a damp squib – with the impactor passing right through a diffuse, rubbly comet – had fizzled away.” (New Scientist )