Probe crashes into Moon's surface

[OXO]

Probe crashes into Moon's surface

Smart 1 (Esa)

Scientists hope to view the rock beneath the moon's surface

Mission update

Europe's lunar satellite, the Smart 1 probe, has ended its mission by crashing onto the Moon's surface in a controlled collision.

It was a spectacular end for the robotic probe, which has spent the last 16 months testing innovative and miniaturised space technologies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5309656.stm

[Astroman]

I'd been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks. It occurred at 10:41 pm local time, perfect. It was ~30º above the western horizon-perfect. The flash was estimated between 4 and 8 magnitude-perfect! The clouds rolled in around 7:00 pm and dumped almost 2" of rain on us until well after midnight! ARRGGH! I guess a guy with a C8 in Santa Fe New Mexico got a good video, as did the Canda-France-Hawai'i 6 meter telescope on Mauna Kea, though. Wish I could have seen it!

[Rob]

I did catch this on News 24!.. looks like an interesting project. Cant wait for some results.

[The Warthog]

Kids! Probably driving too fast. The moon's big, they shudda seen it! :x

[OXO]

Bet they were high on maple leafs WH

[Astroman]

Link to an amateur recording the event with a C8:

http://cosmonut.org/Smart-1.gif

Link to CFHT images:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEM2N58ZMRE_0.html

[OXO]

Great links Astroman 8)