Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

LUNAR IMPACT PLUME [LCROSS team: Moon collision a "smashing success" after all]
SpaceWeather.com ^ | October 19, 2009

Posted on 10/19/2009 8:02:33 PM PDT by ETL

There was a plume after all. Observers on Earth had their doubts after LCROSS and its Centaur booster rocket hit the Moon on Friday, Oct. 9th. The twin lunar impacts failed to produce visible plumes of debris, prompting speculation that something had gone wrong. On the contrary, members of the LCROSS science team are now calling the experiment "a smashing success."

Fifteen seconds after the Centaur hit the shadowy floor of crater Cabeus, the LCROSS spacecraft flying 600 km overhead took the following picture of a plume measuring 6 to 8 km wide:

"There is a clear indication of a plume of vapor and fine debris," says LCROSS principal investigator Tony Colaprete of NASA/Ames. "The ejecta brightness appears to be at the low end of our predictions and this may be a clue to the properties of the material the Centaur hit."

Nine cameras and spectrometers on LCROSS captured every phase of the Centaur's impact: the intial flash, the debris plume, and the creation of the Centaur's crater. "We are blown away by the data returned," says Colaprete. "The team is working hard on the analysis and the data appear to be of very high quality."

But did the impact reveal any water at the bottom of Cabeus? The LCROSS team isn't ready to say yet. Combining their data with those of other observatories and analyzing the full dataset could take weeks. According to NASA, "any new information will undergo the normal scientific review process and will be released as soon as it is available."

For more information, read NASA's Oct. 16th press release and browse the gallery of images.


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1178ad; ad1178; cabeus; canterbury; catastrophism; centaur; lcross; lunarimpact; moon; nasa; themoon
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

1 posted on 10/19/2009 8:02:34 PM PDT by ETL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: ETL

Well, as I said on another thread recently, I still think they would have done better to mount Joe Biden on the missile and fire him at the moon. Then they would have gotten a really significant show.


2 posted on 10/19/2009 8:08:18 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Did anyone else hear the wacky explanation on Coast to Coast AM about this? Maybe I was almost asleap but I think a guest was claiming some secret that there are (ready for this?) ruins on the moon and there was no plume because it hit a building. LOL


3 posted on 10/19/2009 8:15:05 PM PDT by Proud2BeRight
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cicero

...Well, as I said on another thread recently, I still think they would have done better to mount Joe Biden on the missile and fire him at the moon. Then they would have gotten a really significant show.........

That’s a two-fer.

Now, send up Algore, to smash into the cold moon, now, that’s a trifecta!


4 posted on 10/19/2009 8:16:02 PM PDT by aShepard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: ETL

You would think that by now they would have some information on what was in the plumes. Especially if it contained any water or not.


5 posted on 10/19/2009 8:22:44 PM PDT by Revel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

I heard it impacted at twice the speed of a bullet

1) why so slow?

2) too bad it had to hit in a deep shadow


6 posted on 10/19/2009 8:26:37 PM PDT by Mr. K (THIS ADMINISTRATION IS WEARING OUT MY CAPSLOCK KEY DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT!!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K
Bullet speed vary between 750 and 4000 feet per second!
7 posted on 10/19/2009 8:31:41 PM PDT by HuntsvilleTxVeteran ((B.?) Hussein (Obama?Soetoro?Dunham?) Change America Will Die From.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

#2. Because the water was frozen in the shaded part of
the crater. Or so they suspected.

Please Lord, let there be water on the moon in sufficient
quantities to allow man to live there.
If so it is the next frontier, and Americans
do well on the frontier, the lack of which has
resulted in the malaise of the last few years.


8 posted on 10/19/2009 8:38:38 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: ETL; Quix
Geez, come on. Realtime image blackout, then this Photoshopped amateur hour?

Who's moonbase did we really hit?


9 posted on 10/19/2009 8:39:36 PM PDT by The Comedian (Evil can only succeed if good men don't point at it and laugh.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

“Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.”

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2009/09-131AR.html


10 posted on 10/19/2009 8:43:15 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: HuntsvilleTxVeteran; Mr. K
Bullet speed vary between 750 and 4000 feet per second

"Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9"

1.5 miles per second = 7920 feet per second

11 posted on 10/19/2009 8:50:54 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: ETL
Now we've really ticked them off. To the bunker!
12 posted on 10/19/2009 8:54:31 PM PDT by ReneeLynn (Socialism is SO yesterday. Fascism, it*s the new black. Mmm Mmm Mmm.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ReneeLynn

Are those two “moon creatures”?


13 posted on 10/19/2009 9:24:00 PM PDT by ETL (ALL (most?) of the Obama-commie connections at my FR Home page: http://www.freerepublic.com/~etl/)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ETL

Yes, but they’re invisible so they have to inhabit the bodies of the dead. From Invisible Invaders, come from the moon to warn earth of a takeover. I love this movie.


14 posted on 10/19/2009 9:29:52 PM PDT by ReneeLynn (Socialism is SO yesterday. Fascism, it*s the new black. Mmm Mmm Mmm.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: ETL; NormsRevenge; SunkenCiv; Marine_Uncle; Fred Nerks

Thanks for the post.


15 posted on 10/19/2009 9:47:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ETL

We put a dot on the moon!


16 posted on 10/20/2009 12:25:35 AM PDT by TChad
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Perhaps within the next few weeks we shall get some spectral analysis coming out. Hopefully it will be honest and not slanted.


17 posted on 10/20/2009 12:26:08 PM PDT by Marine_Uncle (Honor must be earned....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Cicero
Well, as I said on another thread recently, I still think they would have done better to mount Joe Biden on the missile and fire him at the moon. Then they would have gotten a really significant show

Yeah, except that Joe is the human equivalent of a hollow-point round, and I don't know that it would raise much of a plume.

18 posted on 10/20/2009 12:32:21 PM PDT by r9etb
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

should have used a Fireball XL5

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glasseye/1798479972/

I wonder what the aliens living on the dark side of the moon thought about this experiment? 8-”


19 posted on 10/20/2009 2:24:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed .. Monthly Donor Onboard)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge; Marine_Uncle

I bet Obama and Biden would like to travel in that...we should build it and send both to the moon to check the plume...

20 posted on 10/20/2009 2:33:35 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (Support Geert Wilders)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-27 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson