Oct 16 2009
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(New page: NASA’s ARC announced that LCROSS’s observation of its 9 October 2009 impact on the lunar surface had succeeded. During LCROSS’s...)
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NASA’s ARC announced that LCROSS’s observation of its 9 October 2009 impact on the lunar surface had succeeded. During LCROSS’s descent into the Centaur crater, nine instruments on board had captured each phase of the impact sequence. The ultraviolet/visible and near-infrared spectrometer and camera data had revealed a faint but distinct debris plume. LCROSS Principal Investigator and Project Scientist Anthony Colaprete remarked that the ejecta brightness of the plume was at the low end of NASA’s predictions. However, that description could provide a clue to help determine the properties of the material that Centaur had impacted. LCROSS had also captured Centaur’s impact flash in both of its mid-infrared thermal cameras over a couple of seconds. The temperature of that flash would provide valuable information about the composition of the material at the impact site. Although creating a plume had been the key to the mission’s success, LCROSS had not detected a debris plume, initially. The new images, captured by a different camera on board the spacecraft, confirmed that Centaur’s impact had, indeed, created a plume.
NASA Ames Research Center, “NASA’s LCROSS Captures All Phases of Centaur Impact,” ARC news release 16 October 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/LCROSS_impact.html (accessed 30 September 2011); John Johnson Jr. “NASA Moon Crash Did Kick Up Debris Plume as Hoped,” Los Angeles Times, 17 October 2009.
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