"You can not help but get a big flash when objects meet at 23,000 miles per hour," said Deep Impact co-investigator Dr. Pete Schultz of Brown University, Providence, R.I. "The heat produced by impact was at least several thousand degrees Kelvin and at that extreme temperature just about any material begins to glow. Essentially, we generated our own incandescent photo flash for less than a second."

The flash created by the impact was just one of the visual surprises that confronted the Deep Impact team. Preliminary assessment of the images and data downlinked from the flyby spacecraft have provided an amazing glimpse into the life of a comet.

"They say a picture can speak a thousand words," said Deep Impact Project Manager Rick Grammier of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "But when you take a look at some of the ones we captured in the early morning hours of July 4, 2005 I think you can write a whole encyclopedia."

At a news conference held later on July 4, Deep Impact team members displayed a movie depicting the final moments of the impactor's life. The final image from the impactor was transmitted from the short-lived probe three seconds before it met its fiery end.

"The final image was taken from a distance of about 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) from the comet's surface," said Deep Impact Principal Investigator Dr. Michael A'Hearn of the University of Maryland, College Park. "From that close distance we can resolve features on the surface that are less than 4 meters (about 13 feet) across. When I signed on for this mission I wanted to get a close-up look at a comet, but this is ridiculous… in a great way."

“在物体以23000英里/时的速度相撞时，你除了看到强烈的闪光外什么也做不了”深度撞击项目的观察员、Providence市的Brown大学的Pete Schultz博士说。“撞击产生的热量至少有数千开尔文度，极限温度可以使任何物质灼热发光。实际上，我们的相机曝光不超过一秒钟（原文 Essentially,we generated our own incandescent photo flash for less than a second)。

碰撞产生的焰火仅仅是深度撞击小组面对的奇异景象之一.太空船传回的图片和数据初步提供了彗星生命中令人惊异的场景(撞击效果).

"人们说一张图片能表达很多意思",深度撞击项目负责人NASA喷气推进实验室的Rick Grammier 说,"如果你看一下我们在7月4日早上拍到的一些图片,你应该能写一部百科全书"

在7月4号撞击后的记者招待会上,深度撞击小组展示了一段录像,该录像记录了撞击器最后的镜头.在撞击器烧毁的前3秒,它的短命的探测器最后一次传回图像.

"最后的图片是在距彗星表面30公里处拍摄的,"深度撞击首席观察员,马里兰州立大学Park学院的Michael A'Hearn博士说到,"在那么近的距离上我们可以了解到彗星地表4米深处的物质组成.在我加入这个计划时,我就希望能得到彗星的近距离特写,但(当时)这个想法有些荒谬   (这次撞击)太隆重了."