Monday, October 5, 2009

Crashing The Moon

On Friday morning, Oct. 9 at 4:30 a.m., the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will crash into the Moon....on purpose. Scientists believe there is water ice hidden in at least one crater on the south pole of the Moon, where it never get sunlight. LCROSS's rocket stage will plunge into the lunar surface, inside Cabeus crater, sending up a plume of debris and (hopefully) water molecules. Four minutes later, the satellite itself will plunge toward the surface on a crash-course, passing through the plume and sending information back to Earth about it.
I'm hoping to be able to record the event from my location, using my 10" telescope and a high-resolution video camera.
If you don't have a medium-to-large telescope, NASA-TV is going to air the event LIVE from LCROSS, just before it crashes into the Moon!!!
Below, is an image of the Moon, showing the region where the impact will occur.....






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