Solar System News: A ribbon on the outside, and a teensy plume did rise over Moon’s south pole
Last week the big kerplunk upon the moon by NASA’s LCROSS mission got some ribbing and titters and tsk tsks after the spent rocket missile failed to raise a visible flash or even lingering smattering of dust. Word came at midday Friday, however, that the trailing probe did spot a faint cloud of fine ejecta in data at infrared and ultraviolet wavlengths. Looks like vapor and dust. No confirmation yet that it obliterated any glaciers, or even ice cubes, down in the ever-shaded crater it hit.
Science News‘s Ron Cowen was among those who got the news out quickly on Friday. The images show “the heat flash from the impact, the plume and the creation of a new crater inside Cabeus,” he writes of the science in the crater. The crater is 28 meters wide. After the global disappointment by telescope and big binocular-wielding watchers, not to mentions millions watching TV and streaming video, this indication that it was not a scientific bust – which after all is the main point – got considerable pickup.
Other stories:
- AP: NASA:photos show mooon strike created plume;
- LA Times – John Johnson Jr. : NASA moon crash did kick up debris plume as hoped ;
- SF Chronicle: Craft kicked up debris on moon after all ;
- Hed prize goes surprisingly perhaps to Xinhua/China View – Deng Shasha: (the piece itself is credited mainly to other agencies): NASA: Moon strike not total waste of time ;
PLUS, also late last week news broke that NASA’s new IBEX spacecraft, first to measure the distribution of neutral particles along the boundary between the outgoing solar wind and the thin, surrounding interstellar medium, found a big surprise. Instead of a tumultuous but essentially evenly constructed boundary region, a distinct ribbon of neutral gas appears to concentrate much of the material.
Stories:
- NPR - All Things Considered: NASA Discovers A Ring Around The Solar System ;
- Science News – Ron Cowen (via Wired Science) : Edge of Solar System is Not What We Expected ;
Grist for the Mill:
NASA Ibex Press Release ; NASA LCROSS update press release ;
- Charlie Petit
