Armed with several hundred pound solid copper bullet, NASA's Deep Impact mission to Comet P9/Temple1 continues to pursue its quarry, seen here in Virgo on May 12, 2005.
NASA hopes that the impact will disturb the surface of the comet enough to be observable back on earth shortly after it occurs on July 4, 2005.
Surely it's a shot that may be seen round the world!
The bright star to the left is WDS HEI 771 (magnitude 11.3). Bright star above, right is GSC 882.340 (magnitude 10.22) Small galaxy above, right is unidentified. The comet itself is at magnitude 9.9.
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