For thousands of years, Mankind regarded comets as bearers of evil tidings. Only in the last few hundred years with the invention of certain technologies have astronomers been able to understand that comets are essentially big clumps of ice and dust.

	What are the Science Objectives? Learn more about the Deep Impact science objectives and the way in which the mission planned to fulfill them.			More about Comet Tempel 1 Find out why Comet Tempel 1 was the best small body to visit to fulfill the Deep Impact science objectives.
	Why Study Comets? What are the reasons that scientists are interested in comets? Find out.			Making a Crater Find out how the team designed the mission to make a deep crater.
	Observing Comet Tempel 1 View the plan for gathering data from places on Earth.			It Takes a Cosmic Village An international array of telescopes trained expert eyes on the Deep Impact encounter with Tempel 1.
	Small Telescope Science Program Professional and amateur astronomers add their data to that of the science team.			Amateur Observers Program You can learn how to observe Comet Tempel 1.
	Comets in Ancient Cultures Throughout history, different cultures had various views of comets.			Creating Colorful Comets Noah Goldman gives perspective on how the science team uses color.
	Meet the Science Team Get to know the people who study the mission's data.			The Deep Impact Spectrometer What is a spectrometer and what does it do?
	Deep Impact Publications Archive Read articles published about comets and the Deep Impact mission.			How Did the Mission Get its Name? Dr. Alan Delamere tells us how the idea for the Deep Impact mission was developed.
	Other Small Bodies Missions The Deep Impact mission is one of several to visit comets and asteroids.