An artist's rendering of the Deep Impact flyby spacecraft releasing its impactor, 24 hours before the impact event, in July 2005. Pictured from left to right are comet Tempel 1, the impactor and the flyby spacecraft. The impactor was a 370-kilogram mass with an onboard guidance system. The flyby spacecraft included a solar panel, a high-gain antenna, a debris shield and instruments for high- and medium-resolution imaging, infrared spectroscopy and optical navigation (yellow box and cylinder, lower left).
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