UH will present
findings on comet

University of Hawaii astronomer Karen Meech, who coordinated Earth-based observations for a spacecraft's collision with a comet in July, will present "Deep Impact: What We've Learned So Far" at 7 p.m. tomorrow in the UH-Manoa School of Architecture auditorium.

The free lecture is open to the public as part of a series of Frontiers of Astronomy community lectures sponsored by the Hawaii Institute for Astronomy.

Meech, a planetary scientist and co-investigator for the NASA Deep Impact mission, will present latest results and explain what they mean.

A crater the size of a football field was excavated when the spacecraft hit comet Tempel 1, allowing scientists to study primordial material left from the first 100 million years of the solar system.

The event was observed worldwide by 130 registered astronomers at 70 major observatories.

Meech's team gathered data from 1999 up to the time of the mission to obtain critical information about the comet's target nucleus.