Thursday, October 8, 2009

Centaur Moon bomb...


will strike the lunar south polar region early tomorrow morning as depicted in the embedded video above. The impact of the spent Centaur rocket stage should send bits of lunar regolith and suspected water ice deposits into ballistic trajectories high above the crater rim to be imaged from Earth. The LCROSS spacecraft itself will fly through the cloud of debris shortly thereafter with its own on-board sensors and imagers, transmitting data back to Earth. It will also strike the Moon releasing a second debris plume, all in an effort to verify the presence of water ice.

Previous related post with websites and observation times if you're keen on following the mission in real time.

UPDATE: Both objects have struck the Moon. I did not observe the impact events with my telescope, nor did other amateurs.

From Spaceweather.com: "The impact flash from the Centaur booster rocket was not bright, but mission scientists say that could be good news, indicative of an impact in loose, relatively water-rich regolith."

Animation courtesy NASA.

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