Moon Impact Data and Images from LCROSS: First Glance

The Near Infrared camera on LCROSS captured this image of the lunar south pole on its way into impact on October 9, 2009. It watched the Centaur upper stage crash into a permanently shadowed area of the crater Cabeus.Credit: NASA / ARC

Even without big explosions or bright plumes of ejecta, for all intents and purposes it appears LCROSS's impact on the Moon was a smashing success. While the mainstream media and the public seemed disappointed in the lack of visual data, mission managers said the mission has garnered plenty of spectroscopic data, and that's where the real science can be found. "There was an impact and we saw the crater with spectroscopic data," said LCROSS principal investigator Tony Colaprete. "We have the data we need to address the questions we set out to answer." The big question is whether the impact kicked up any signatures of water ice, but it could take days, weeks or months to analyze all the data.
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