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PASADENA, California (Reuters) – A NASA space probe slammed into a comet on the morning of Monday, causing a brilliant collision that was the peak of a risky mission to discover the secrets of the formation of life on Earth. 

“We hit exactly where we wanted,” said Don Yeomans, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA’s Jet. 

The spectacular shock to 134 million miles from Earth has released a stream of material below the surface of the comet. This material was formed billions of years ago, during the creation of the Solar System. It is the first time a probe into contact with the nucleus of a comet. 

“I think we now have a completely different understanding of our solar system,” said Charles Elachi, director of the laboratory. “Its success exceeded our expectations.” 

The probe, the size of a washing machine, made three moves in the final two hours to reach the target. He hit the brightest spot of the comet Tempel 1 on the exact scheduled time, 2:52 (GMT), taking pictures of his rocky surface to 3.7 seconds before the collision. 

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The spacecraft disintegrated in the collision, which occurred at 37,100 kilometers per hour – enough speed to go from New York to Los Angeles in six minutes. 

An image of the collision, made by the mother ship Deep Impact, showed a bright eruption out of the bottom of the comet, which is shaped like an avocado. The probe was released by Deep Impact about 24 hours before. 

“The impact was bigger than I expected, and higher than most of us expected,” Yeomans said. “We have all the data we could ask, and the scientific team is ecstatic.” 

Technicians present in the control room of the mission, which cost 333 million dollars, shouted, clapped and hugged when it was confirmation of the collision. 

But according to Mike A’Hearn, chief scientist of the mission, will take months for all the data are analyzed. Three hours after the impact, only 10 percent of the data had come to Earth. 

“Basically we’re starting our work now,” he told reporters during the night. “I expect a wealth of data that take me to retirement.” 

Comets are made of gas, dust and ice from the most remote regions of the solar system. They sometimes have bouts of activity when the surface crack and releases the material that creates dust tails. Scientists think that the shock of one or more comets brought water on Earth. 

Experts disagree on the density that the core of comets may have, but the size of the collision on Monday appeared to rule out a more porous composition, cushion the impact of the probe, according to A’Hearn. 

Images taken by the impactor showed the comet nucleus with an unprecedented detail. Several circular craters appear. 

Still do not know the size of the hole left by the impactor, which was coated with copper. Can have the area of a house or even a football stadium. 

The mothership, which recorded the operation just 500 kilometers, survived the crash unscathed, according to scientists.