Deep Impact

I hadn't followed the Deep Impact mission much. I remember hearing about it maybe even a year or two ago durring its development. It just came back into my mind when I saw on Wikipedia that the impact had actually occurred as planned.

I haven't seen the latest results yet, but I did see some pretty spectacular imagery of the impact. We should get some good insight into the composition of comet Temple 1, and hopefully of comets in general. It'll be really interesting to see what impact (pun intended) this will have of the Exploding Planet Hypothesis (EPH).

The EPH maintains that comets (and asteroids) are the debris remaning after planet 5 (orbiting between Mars and Jupiter) exploded. This model has been consistent with many observations of comets and asteroids including their orbits, comet fragmentation, and possibly even asteroid density (within the belt).

The EPH is more than just a curious theory to explain some characteristics of comets and asteroids though. It has far reaching implications in a variety of fields.

If the EPH is true, what caused the destruction of an entire planet? What effect did it have on the orbits of nearby planets (Mars in particular)? Was Planet V inhabitable? Did it support life? Intellegent life?

I know, as soon as I said the "L" word I lost half of my readers. It seems that if a person hypothesizes about extra-terrestrial life he is automatically consigned to "kookdom". I'll have to write another post explaining how extra-terrestrial life was already confirmed by both Viking landers. But that's a story for another time...