Earth Vs. Moon! "...and boom goes the satellite."

[Furtherman]

Tomorrow morning, Ronnie B's dream comes true.

We bomb the Moon. (http://io9.com/5376932/nasa-will-bomb-the-moon-tomorrow)

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/files/2009/09/lcross.jpg


Tomorrow in the early morning American time, NASA's LCROSS spacecraft will bomb the Moon's south pole, in an effort to discover icy liquids beneath the satellite's crust. Hopefully we'll find water, and the Ice Warriors won't be pissed off.

Actually there will be no bombs involved. The LCROSS, or "lunar impacting probe," will itself smash into the Moon's surface near a crater-shadowed region where scientists have predicted that ice would form. Though radar of the Moon's surface lately has suggested strongly that such icy liquids are abundant on the Moon, the evidence remains inconclusive. Which is why we have to do the smash test.

Ok, it's not a bomb. It's more like a really hard hit.

The plume from the impact should stretch up many kilometers. It will almost certainly be too thin to be seen by amateur instruments, but the impact itself should make a bright enough flash to be seen if you have a telescope. The crater itself will be in shadow, making the light flash easier to spot. It'll only last a second or two, so if you want to observe it, be prepared!


The LCROSS will hit the Cabeus A site marked in the image below at 11:30 AM GMT October 9 - on the near side of the Moon, so you'll be able to see the explosion on impact if you have a decent telescope.

You think we'll find a lot of icy liquids?



edit: "...and boom goes the satellite." by topless mike

[boosterp]

I found this earlier and think it's neat. Wish I had a telescope to see it.

[KnoxHarrington]

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[Furtherman]

Tomorrow night:

http://cache-foo.gawker.com/gawker/assets/video/stills/t/timemachin_io9.flv.jpg

[topless_mike]

"and boom goes the satellite"

[Furtherman]

"and boom goes the satellite"

Excellent. I will put that in the title.

[Whitey]

http://cache.io9.com/assets/resources/2008/04/Melies_TripMoon_largest.jpg

SHOOT THE MOON!!

[Devo37]

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c395/Devo37/RonMagazine.jpg

[Snoogans]

i hope this doesnt piss off the aliens that live there

[Boogie in Va]

11:30am GMT means what time for us East Coasters? 9:30am? To me, that is not "early morning America time"

[Snoogans]

11:30am GMT means what time for us East Coasters? 9:30am? To me, that is not "early morning America time"

if GMT is british time, it would mean 630am

[Crossweird]

if GMT is british time, it would mean 630am

No, no, no. 11:30am GMT is 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Boogie in Va]

psssssh - 6:30 is still not that early. Oh well, I guess we wont be able to try to see it.

[boosterp]

11:30am GMT means what time for us East Coasters? 9:30am? To me, that is not "early morning America time"

Greenish (sp?) Mean Time. -5 for you east coasters so like snoog said, 6:30 am.

[topless_mike]

Greenish (sp?) Mean Time. -5 for you east coasters so like snoog said, 6:30 am.

gmt is "greater meridian time"

stands for the great meridian, aka 0deg longitude. runs right through the uk

[Crossweird]

Greenwich Mean Time.

(but Greenish sounds cooler)

[ozzie]

Greenwich Mean Time (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/eastern-time/)

Eastern Time Zone = GMT -4 hours, = 7:30 am tomorrow morning.

[Crossweird]

Great.

Now, what the hell is a litre?

[topless_mike]

Great.

Now, what the hell is a litre?

3.78 imperial gallons.

[west milly Tom]

So cool. Do you think Bruce Willis will make it home?

[west milly Tom]

gmt is "greater meridian time"

stands for the great meridian, aka 0deg longitude. runs right through the uk

He's a witch! Burn him!

[topless_mike]

wow.
i always thought gmt was "greater meridian time"

see? learn something new everyday.
thanks guys. you're the shit.

[dino_electropolis]

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Classic.


You can always count on Mr. Show for a laugh.


Only a matter of time before the Doomsday Telethon....

[Crispy123]

if GMT is british time, it would mean 630am

Greenwich Mean Time (http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/usa/eastern-time/)

Eastern Time Zone = GMT -4 hours, = 7:30 am tomorrow morning.

duh

[ozzie]

we are still in Daylight Savings Time, so its -5 like Snoogans pointed out. 0630 EST

No, just the opposite.

We "fall back" on November 1st, and go "back" to Standard time.

Tomorrow, EDT, will be GMT - 4

During Standard time, EST = GMT - 5

[Crispy123]

gmt is "greater meridian time"

stands for the great meridian, aka 0deg longitude. runs right through the uk

The 0 degree longitude is known as the "prime" meridian and runs through the royal observatory located in Greenwich, UK.

[Crispy123]

No, just the opposite.

We "fall back" on November 1st, and go "back" to Standard time.

Tomorrow, EDT, will be GMT - 4

During Standard time, EST = GMT - 5

my bad, you are correct.

[furie]

No, no, no. 11:30am GMT is 59 degrees Fahrenheit.

or 30 euro

[Furtherman]

All I know is that for the Moon, it's clobbering time!

[TonyStark]

They better line up a satellite to snap pictures or something because this seems like it would make some totally awesome space pictures.

[Crossweird]

or 30 euro

Which is about 6 kilometers.

[hedges]

I'm gonna watch all of this on the NASA channel at 4:30AM Pacific Time. I can't wait.

[RhinoinMN]

All I know is that for the Moon, it's clobbering time!

Shoot that shit to the sky!

[Farmer Dave]

That was anti-climactic. Guess we have to wait for telescope pics to see any dust plume.

[KingGeno]

I just discovered I have a crashing into the moon fetish. What a mess.

[hedges]

That was anti-climactic. Guess we have to wait for telescope pics to see any dust plume.

Couldn't see a thing.

[Farmer Dave]

Couldn't see a thing.

I'm guessing you weren't operating the Hubble. I think it was supposed to be aimed at it.

[Foster]

They should attack the Sun next. Show that glowing piece of shit who's boss

[biggestmexi]

They should attack the Sun next. Show that glowing piece of shit who's boss

i think that MIGHT come back to bite us in the ass on that one.

[A.J.]

So cool. Do you think Bruce Willis will make it home?

I hope not so I can take care of Liv Tyler.

[led37zep]

I was kind of hoping the moon would blow up. The world needs something interesting to go happen with that arrogant rock.

Plus...fuck tides!

[Recyclerz]

i think that MIGHT come back to bite us in the ass on that one.

Eh, so you get your Vitamin D through a glass of milk. :wink:


I'm seriously juiced that we'll finally get a look at Tycho Magnetic Anomaly - One. I wonder what that shit is?

[sr71blackbird]

This whole European thing with the discrepencies with GMT and the metric system is responsible for the loss of that multi billion dollar Mars satellite a few years ago. The controllers on both sides of the Atlantic had their machines set to different settings. We had feet and they had meters. I understand the value of a universal time, but the stupid daylight savings time causes more headaches than anything. They should eliminate it. My company is UK owned and they constantly send us emails updating us as a reminder that some teleconferences might be off by 5 hours due to variable daylight savings times they implement in the UK. Its insanity.

Anyway, the probe hit the moon and of course, they forgot to turn the video feeds on so we all missed any images of it. Way to go, bright boys.

[ozzie]

Anyway, the probe hit the moon and of course, they forgot to turn the video feeds on so we all missed any images of it. Way to go, bright boys.

???

They had live video on the Today show at 7:31.

[mikeyboy]

This whole European thing with the discrepencies with GMT and the metric system is responsible for the loss of that multi billion dollar Mars satellite a few years ago. The controllers on both sides of the Atlantic had their machines set to different settings. We had feet and they had meters.

This doesn't make any sense to me. What do time zones have to do with units that measure distance?

[biggestmexi]

This doesn't make any sense to me. What do time zones have to do with units that measure distance?

76

[hedges]

I'm guessing you weren't operating the Hubble. I think it was supposed to be aimed at it.

Yeah it was aimed at it. It will be interesting to see what it got.

[Stankfoot]

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/392892main_LCROSS_516-387.jpg

I think I see a face! Where's Jerry when you need him?

[IamFogHat]

Did we win?

[Furtherman]

NASA finds reservoir of water ice on the Moon! (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/11/13/nasa-finds-reservoir-of-water-ice-on-the-moon/)

The target crater, Cabeus, has a temperature on its floor of -230 Celsius, cold enough to store ice. The Centaur slammed into it at high speed, making a new crater about 20 meters across and splashing debris over an even bigger area. A plume went up and out of the crater, and it was that tower of ejected material that had the telltale signs of water. The infrared spectrometer on LCROSS definitely detected absorption lines from water, and the ultraviolet spectrometer saw it in emission. Not only that, the emission got stronger with time, which clinches the deal! That’s exactly what you expect by a plume containing water.

The amount of water they found in the plume was a couple of hundred kilograms in total, but that indicates there is a lot more still lying on the surface. They don’t know how much exactly just yet; NASA wanted to release this news as soon as they were sure they had definite results, but there is still much to do. Where did this water come from? How long has it been there? How accessible is it to future astronauts? These questions and more will, hopefully, be answered in the coming weeks as months as the data are analyzed more thoroughly.

Water Ice!

I hope it's Cherry flavored.

http://www.philadelphiawatericefactoryobx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/pwif_2008_logo.jpg

[topless_mike]

before long, once we can live there, the only water will be

http://www.dealbreaker.com/images/entries/water.jpg