WASHINGTON — A NASA satellite that has been hurtled into a Moon crater on an exploratory mission previous week sent back "exciting" images from each and every phase of its flight and successive crash, the US space agency said Monday.
"We are blown away by the data returned," said Anthony Colaprete who is the principal investigator as well as the project scientist for the experiment, dubbed LCROSS, for Lunar Crater Observation also Sensing Satellite.
"The team is functioning hard on the analysis, and the data come out to be of very high quality," he said.
"The images of the floor of Cabeus are very much exciting," Colaprete added.
"Being proficient to image the Centaur crater helps us rebuild the impact process," he said.
NASA's LCROSS mission was launched in June aboard the Atlas V orbiter with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a probe tasked with producing a detailed map of the Moon.
Previously, the images from the crash indicate that the crater was about 92 feet (28 meters) wide, researchers said.
Scientists say they hope the desolate lunar pole and that will be a fertile hunting ground in their efforts to detect water, which is seen as a stepping stone to build a future lunar base.
Last week, as the satellite plunged into the Moon's Cabeus crater close to the lunar southern pole just about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) per hour, nine LCROSS instruments captured each and every phase of the impact.
The satellite, which slammed into the crater, was followed four minutes later on by a spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the collision and its following effects -- together with the creation of a "faint but distinct" dust plume.
Colaprete says that "There is a clear indication of a plume of vapor and fine debris”.
Space officials said particulars about the size, shape along with the visibility of the debris cloud yield vital clues about the type as well as amount of material at the impact site.
In upcoming weeks, NASA scientists said they plan to analyze as well as verify more data that has been gathered from the LCROSS experiment.
"We are blown away by the data returned," said Anthony Colaprete who is the principal investigator as well as the project scientist for the experiment, dubbed LCROSS, for Lunar Crater Observation also Sensing Satellite.
"The team is functioning hard on the analysis, and the data come out to be of very high quality," he said.
"The images of the floor of Cabeus are very much exciting," Colaprete added.
"Being proficient to image the Centaur crater helps us rebuild the impact process," he said.
NASA's LCROSS mission was launched in June aboard the Atlas V orbiter with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a probe tasked with producing a detailed map of the Moon.
Previously, the images from the crash indicate that the crater was about 92 feet (28 meters) wide, researchers said.
Scientists say they hope the desolate lunar pole and that will be a fertile hunting ground in their efforts to detect water, which is seen as a stepping stone to build a future lunar base.
Last week, as the satellite plunged into the Moon's Cabeus crater close to the lunar southern pole just about 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) per hour, nine LCROSS instruments captured each and every phase of the impact.
The satellite, which slammed into the crater, was followed four minutes later on by a spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the collision and its following effects -- together with the creation of a "faint but distinct" dust plume.
Colaprete says that "There is a clear indication of a plume of vapor and fine debris”.
Space officials said particulars about the size, shape along with the visibility of the debris cloud yield vital clues about the type as well as amount of material at the impact site.
In upcoming weeks, NASA scientists said they plan to analyze as well as verify more data that has been gathered from the LCROSS experiment.
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