NASA's much-anticipated 'moon bombing' mission, in which NASA has sent the LCROSS spacecraft to the moon to hit a crater in order to gather frozen water, may have literally strike a 'dry hole' and there were no billowing plumes of dust as well as ice visible after the impact.
As per the report in National Geographic News, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission sent two spacecraft 'bombing' into the moon on 9th of October.
The craft successfully struck their target and the crater thought to harbour frozen water.But, the much-hyped moon show that had been projected to accompany the impact, however this has turned out to be a flop, as no billowing plumes of dust and ice were visible through backyard telescopes or on NASA TV.
The low-impact collision had one NASA expert who assumes that LCROSS may have struck a 'dry hole'.
On 9th of October at 7:31 am ET, a 2.2-ton empty rocket shot from the LCROSS probe strike the crater Cabeus A happening on moon's South Pole.
Four minutes later on, LCROSS performed its personal kamikaze dive, which was the finishing act in its mission to find out evidence of water ice in the moon's shadowed craters.
Whether or not sky-watchers might see the LCROSS crashes, NASA insists they happened.
"I can surely report that there was an impact," said by Anthony Colaprete, a LCROSS principal investigator furthermore he added that "We saw the impact and we saw the crater.”
As soon as the rocket crashed into the moon, though, cameras on LCROSS registered no discernable change in the crater -- as a minimum to the untrained eye.
'It was very hard to tell what we saw there,' said Michael Bicay, science director at NASA Ames Research Centre in California, in live coverage on NASA TV.
A closer inspection of LCROSS impact images, though, has exposed a small white speck that scientists think is the debris thrown up by the first crash, but it will take some time for the scientists to find out whether it is evidence of water on the moon, according to NASA.
'I’ am not going to say anything about water or no water, but we got some data that we have to address the question,' said Colaprete, a LCROSS principal investigator.
For a numerous amateur astronomers who got up in the early hours to watch the crashes all the way through telescopes or on NASA TV, the crashes were a little anticlimactic.
'We had telescopes which are 32 inches wide, and nothing was seen,' said Siegfried Jachmann, who is the vice president of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society in Utah.
Scientists said that it may possibly be days before data transmitted by LCROSS are completely analyzed.
As per the report in National Geographic News, NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission sent two spacecraft 'bombing' into the moon on 9th of October.
The craft successfully struck their target and the crater thought to harbour frozen water.But, the much-hyped moon show that had been projected to accompany the impact, however this has turned out to be a flop, as no billowing plumes of dust and ice were visible through backyard telescopes or on NASA TV.
The low-impact collision had one NASA expert who assumes that LCROSS may have struck a 'dry hole'.
On 9th of October at 7:31 am ET, a 2.2-ton empty rocket shot from the LCROSS probe strike the crater Cabeus A happening on moon's South Pole.
Four minutes later on, LCROSS performed its personal kamikaze dive, which was the finishing act in its mission to find out evidence of water ice in the moon's shadowed craters.
Whether or not sky-watchers might see the LCROSS crashes, NASA insists they happened.
"I can surely report that there was an impact," said by Anthony Colaprete, a LCROSS principal investigator furthermore he added that "We saw the impact and we saw the crater.”
As soon as the rocket crashed into the moon, though, cameras on LCROSS registered no discernable change in the crater -- as a minimum to the untrained eye.
'It was very hard to tell what we saw there,' said Michael Bicay, science director at NASA Ames Research Centre in California, in live coverage on NASA TV.
A closer inspection of LCROSS impact images, though, has exposed a small white speck that scientists think is the debris thrown up by the first crash, but it will take some time for the scientists to find out whether it is evidence of water on the moon, according to NASA.
'I’ am not going to say anything about water or no water, but we got some data that we have to address the question,' said Colaprete, a LCROSS principal investigator.
For a numerous amateur astronomers who got up in the early hours to watch the crashes all the way through telescopes or on NASA TV, the crashes were a little anticlimactic.
'We had telescopes which are 32 inches wide, and nothing was seen,' said Siegfried Jachmann, who is the vice president of the Salt Lake Astronomical Society in Utah.
Scientists said that it may possibly be days before data transmitted by LCROSS are completely analyzed.
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