Watch as the Moon gets a one-two punch

William Atkins
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 19:54

Science - Space

The best views of the crashes will be available in the western parts of the United States (in Pacific Daylight Time and Mountain Daylight Time) and as far east as the Mississippi River in the Central Daylight Time region of the country.

The first impact starts at 4:30 am PDT (1130 UT) with the Centaur booster rocket hitting first. NASA declares that the impact will transform “… 2200 kg [kilograms] of mass and 10 billion joules of kinetic energy into a blinding flash of heat and light.”

A debris plume of up to ten kilometers (six miles) is expected from this first impact.

The LCROSS spacecraft will then fly through the debris plume to analyze the impact for signs of water, salts, clays, hydrated minerals, and various organic molecules.

Then, about four minutes later LCROSS itself will also collide with the Moon. The 700-kilogram probe will send up a smaller debris plume.

The action will take place inside the lunar crater Cabeus, which is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Moon's south pole.

See a map of the lunar south pole region at the before-mentioned NASA website. Further information about the LCROSS/rocket impacts on the Moon's surface is also found on this website.

For additional information about watching the collision events, go to the NASA website “Where and how to observe the LCROSS impacts.”