NASA’s space probe, LCROSS, intentionally crashed into the south pole of the moon around 7:30 am EDT this morning in hopes to retrieve data from the dust and particles that were kicked up from the event.

A guided rocket was followed by the LCROSS probe, which contained cameras and instruments to record and analyze the dust particles that were kicked up by the collision with the moon. The probe had nearly 4 minutes to transmit the data back to earth before itself crashing into the surface of the moon.

Scientists and observers expecting to see a flash upon impact didn’t get what they expected, but rather a shaded and invisible impact that left you wondering if the LCROSS even hit. Analysts on NASA tv this morning said it could be a result of the rocket hitting dirt, rather than rock, but claimed they’ll know more after the data is collected.

We were able to find, however, a momentary dot of infrared energy coming from one frame of the feed.

The image to your left is one frame taken from the live feed where a barely visible red dot appears and disappears one frame later. We believe this to be the actual heat signature from the first impact.

Many spectators were disappointed to learn that the long awaited event was so dull and unappealing; however, the real event will be when the probe’s data is processed an analyzed by NASA, which is expected to be released in the coming days.

*Update – At the post-impact press conference, Dan Andrews, LCROSS Project Manager said, “it takes a while to comb through the data to make sure that we are reporting accurate and correct data.”

Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS Principal Invesigator, said the initial results produced “the data we need” but refuses to say anything about “water or no water.”

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Entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2009 at 11:29 am under Science and technology.

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