LCROSS spotted Centaur impact
Posted: Sat, Oct 17, 2009, 11:33 AM ET (1533 GMT)
Officials with NASA's LCROSS mission said Friday that the spacecraft did detect the impact of its Centaur upper stage with the Moon and observe its plume before hitting the Moon itself. Images released by NASA on Friday showed a faint plume kicked up by the Centaur upper stage when it impacted in the Moon's Cabeus crater a few minutes ahead of LCROSS. The plume brightness is at the low end of predictions, scientists said, which may provide clues about the composition of the region struck by the Centaur. NASA had hopes that the impacts would generate a large plume that would easily be observed by groundbased telescopes, but the October 9 impacts failed to match expectations.
Officials with NASA's LCROSS mission said Friday that the spacecraft did detect the impact of its Centaur upper stage with the Moon and observe its plume before hitting the Moon itself. Images released by NASA on Friday showed a faint plume kicked up by the Centaur upper stage when it impacted in the Moon's Cabeus crater a few minutes ahead of LCROSS. The plume brightness is at the low end of predictions, scientists said, which may provide clues about the composition of the region struck by the Centaur. NASA had hopes that the impacts would generate a large plume that would easily be observed by groundbased telescopes, but the October 9 impacts failed to match expectations. | <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
Blue Origin describes plans for increased New Glenn launch rates
Posted: Sat, Oct 17 11:41 AM ET (1541 GMT) |
|
news links
|
|
Sunday, October 18
Exercise helps astronauts’ hearts handle months in space, boosting prospects for Mars
Northwestern Univ. — 5:12 pm ET (2112 GMT) Infostellar Selected for METI’s Global South Future-Oriented Co-Creation Project
Infostellar — 1:12 pm ET (1712 GMT) Meridian Space Successfully Activates its First Communications Payload in Orbit
GlobeNewswire — 1:11 pm ET (1711 GMT) Voyager Awarded $22.4M DoW Contract for Next-Gen Satellite Deployment Systems
Voyager Space — 1:10 pm ET (1710 GMT) Alexander Dahm named new CEO of Rocket Factory Augsburg
Rocket Factory Augsburg — 1:10 pm ET (1710 GMT) |
