Making a Composite Image
This image shows comet Tempel 1 captured in a single frame by the impactor targeting sensor. It was taken approximately 5 minutes before Deep Impact's probe smashed into its surface.
Each rectangle in this image marked in black represents an image taken at closer range than in the image on the left.
The final composite image was built up from more than 25 ITS images all scaled to 5 meters per pixel. Locations observed at a greater distance were replaced by images at closer range. The impact site has the highest resolution because images were acquired until about 4 seconds from impact or a few meters from the surface.