NASA to create artificial lunar impacts and plumes Friday

Started by The Overlord, October 05, 2009, 06:09:21 PM

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The Overlord

NASA to create artificial impacts and plume on the moon, early Friday morning with LCROSS lunar probe.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/index.html

LCROSS Lunar Impact
7:31 a.m. EDT/4:31 a.m. PDT
Friday Oct. 9


An approximately 1.5 hour Live NASA TV Broadcast is planned for the LCROSS impacts starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT/3:15 a.m. PDT, Oct. 9, on NASA TV and www.nasa.gov/ntv.

The broadcast includes:
Live footage from spacecraft camera
Real-time telemetry based animation
Views of LCROSS Mission and Science Operations Broadcast commentary with expert guests
Prepared video segments Views of the public impact viewing event at NASA Ames
Possible live footage from the University of Hawaii, 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea.

Observations and Impact Timing

The LCROSS centaur impact is scheduled for 4:31 a.m. PDT or 7:31 a.m. EDT (11:31 UTC) on October 9, 2009. The sherparding spacecraft will impact at 4:35 a.m. PDT or 7:35 a.m. EDT (11:35 UTC). Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact debris plume should be in view several seconds after Centaur impact and will peak in brightness at 30 to 100 seconds after impact.

Lunar Impact Locations
Centaur: -84.675, 311.275 E
Shepherding spacecraft: -84.729, 310.64 E

Time Zone  Lighting Conditions for Viewing
Eastern Daybreak will prevent viewing of the debris plumes.
Central Best viewing is West of the Mississippi River. 
Mountain Excellent lighting conditions.
Pacific Excellent lighting conditions.
Alaska Excellent lighting conditions.
Hawaii Excellent lighting conditions.

Viewing the impacts for the casual observer will be very complicated. The impacts will not be visible to the naked eye or using binoculars. Mission scientists estimate that the Centaur impact will be visible using a telescope with a diameter of 10-12 inches or larger. Telescopes with smaller diameters or lesser capability may not be powerful. Click here for a list of telescopes and viewing ranges.

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/386933main_Scope_views.pdf

   


Oniya

That reminds me - I need to see if our cable package has the NASA channel.
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Kurzyk


Oniya

Yes.  Yes there is.  But according to the NE Ohio lineup, I won't be getting it yet.  Central OH is getting it later this month.  *Time to bug the cable co*
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

The Overlord


The Overlord


Inkidu

If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

The Overlord

Quote from: Inkidu on October 09, 2009, 02:13:15 PM
I thought it rather anticlimactic...

Yeah sort of, I think some people were expecting to go out this morning and look at the moon and see something similar in scale to the explosion of the Executor nose-diving into the second Death Star.

18 major observatories were watching, and several orbital instruments including Hubble. This is supposed to be the most instruments aimed in one location since the 1994 Jupiter impacts, give them a few days to process and release the imagery, with all that in use something must have been caught.


Also, the point was made that they ideally do not want a huge bright flash. While a large BOOM! such as from the Deep Impact comet strike looks great on newspaper front pages, it also means they stuck mostly rock.

NASA does not want a boom, they want a thud; ideally a good layer of regolith on the crater floor that will get them they science they did this for.