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Thursday, October 8, 2009

Science In About Twelve Hours, We Smash a Part of the Moon

Posted by Jonathan Golob on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 4:19 PM

Question: Is there water on the moon?

Experiment:

The main LCROSS mission objective is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice in a permanently shadowed crater near a lunar polar region.

LCROSS launched with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) aboard an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 18, 2009 at 2:32 p.m. PDT. The LCROSS shepherding spacecraft and the Atlas V’s Centaur upper stage rocket executed a fly-by of the moon on June 23, 2009 (LCROSS lunar swingby video stream coverage) and entered into an elongated Earth orbit to position LCROSS for impact on a lunar pole. On final approach, the shepherding spacecraft and Centaur will separate. The Centaur will act as a heavy impactor to create a debris plume that will rise above the lunar surface. Projected impact at the lunar South Pole is currently: Oct 9, 2009 at 4:30 a.m. PDT. Following four minutes behind, the shepherding spacecraft will fly through the debris plume, collecting and relaying data back to Earth before impacting the lunar surface and creating a second debris plume.

The debris plumes are expected to be visible from Earth- and space-based telescopes 10-to-12 inches and larger.

A small group is gathering at Cal Anderson park to observe. Bring your telescope and join in!

Updated:
At 6:40pm PDT, the Centaur will separate from the rest of the ship. You'll be able to watch it live, via NASA!

The countdown has begun.

Comments (22) RSS

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Regular folks have 10-12 inch telescopes that they drag around for viewing parties in parks?

Posted by tiktok on October 8, 2009 at 4:25 PM

@1: I hand-built a mostly-portable 16" dobsonian at my friend's house when I was 14, I'm pretty sure at least 1 or 2 people in this smarty-smart city have managed to obtain or build their own telescope.

No wait, I take that back-- the well-monied nerds of this city probably have boutique Maksutov-Cassegrains they hurled way too much money at.

Posted by Baconcat on October 8, 2009 at 4:35 PM

Can we smash it so it reads CHA from earth?

Posted by Fistique on October 8, 2009 at 4:36 PM

"In About Twelve Hours, We Smash a Part of the Moon"

so, does this have anything to do with the slog happy after party?

Posted by pissy mcslogbot on October 8, 2009 at 4:36 PM

Dammit Jonathon, all headlines for this should be TONIGHT WE BLOW UP THE MOON! Smashing a part, while accurate, is un-American. We have to blow that fucker up.

Posted by wisepunk on October 8, 2009 at 4:40 PM

I'll be getting up to watch. This is very cool. It is also not the first time humans and nature have crashed stuff into the moon:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/08…

Posted by Heather on October 8, 2009 at 4:53 PM

@5 Wisepunk:

You are, of course, correct. It'll look a bit like this.

Posted by Jonathan Golob

on October 8, 2009 at 4:55 PM

Finally, the threat of Gorgotron will come to an end.

Posted by Dougsf on October 8, 2009 at 4:55 PM

Don't fuck with the moon!!!!!

Posted by Bean on October 8, 2009 at 4:56 PM

@2:

My old Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain 6" reflector only cost me about $150 back in 1993, so would a 300 mm version really be that much more?

Posted by COMTE

on October 8, 2009 at 4:59 PM

So that's why the world ends in 2012 when the Mooninites attack.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 8, 2009 at 5:12 PM

sure it would suck if something bad happened, but this abc mini-series sucked something bad in it's own right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uylcyx3Ob…

Posted by pissy mcslogbot on October 8, 2009 at 5:36 PM

@10: Oh jesus, yes. SC and MCs cost over $1k now.

Posted by Baconcat on October 8, 2009 at 5:42 PM

#7 that's no moon...

Posted by w7ngman

on October 8, 2009 at 5:45 PM

does this remind anyone of the mr. show sketch where they blew up the moon?

Posted by singing cynic on October 8, 2009 at 5:53 PM

@15, this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csj7vMKy4…

They have to make sure the Moon is full so they can get it all...

Posted by Peter F on October 8, 2009 at 6:00 PM

The Moon Men are the red indians of the 21st century. We bomb them, destroy their homes, infect them with smallpox and kill all the Moon buffalo, all for our own selfish greed. And nobody on Earth cares what you do to them.

Americans are no better than Englishmen and Spaniards. There I said it.

Posted by elenchos on October 8, 2009 at 7:14 PM

wow this is nuts - we are cratering the moon? why wasn't this publicized more?

Posted by onion on October 8, 2009 at 7:22 PM

In grand PNW tradition there was a nary a cloud in the sky 40 minutes before impact, and ten minutes before the face of the moon was still clear. Then the clouds just kept getting thicker and thicker until, at 4 minutes out, I couldn't see anything through my 12.5 inch Dob (reflector). But there was no ejecta plume, apparently, so I don't feel so bad.

Posted by Lilting Missive on October 9, 2009 at 5:16 AM

Marvin the Martian said it best:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/lkmarvin/Sou…

Posted by Peter F on October 9, 2009 at 7:01 AM

I'm still waiting for word that the Amazon Women on the Moon have landed to take us hostage.

Tie me up - Tie me down!

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 9, 2009 at 9:29 AM

@7: Ah yes, a glorious scene in American cinematic history. Not least because the young warrior fires his two globs (golobs?) of gleaming white power into the receptive hole and then expresses a total O-face. Super hot.

Posted by baconpussy on October 9, 2009 at 9:52 AM