Even as NASA controllers whooped and cheered in California at news of Deep Impact's success, scientists in Britain have been observing the whole episode with very keen interest in preparation for a European equivalent of Deep Impact called Rosetta, which aims to orbit and land on a comet for the first time.
According to BBC, the results from the comet impact could give valuable insights into what lies in store for the European spacecraft, which was launched in February 2004 on a 10-year trek to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
All through Monday and Tuesday, UK space scientists were sharing in some of the delight and fascination of Deep Impact's American team through a live link to a news conference in London.
In fact, British researchers have been observing the collision from telescopes around the world, including the Faulkes Telescope and United Kingdom Infra-Red Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii, The INT telescope in Spain and the UK Schmidt telescope in Australia. "Deep Impact is beautiful preparation for Rosetta," BBC quoted Dr Andrew Coates of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) at University College London, as saying.