Monday, October 12, 2009

Across the Blogoverse: Bombing the Moon

So NASA bombed the moon on Thursday. Specifically, they fired some missiles at its poles in order to see if any water would be among the debris ejected upon impact. The mission was somewhat disappointing online, as the impact's visibility had apparently been overestimated (see video below). In addition, while the results will likely take weeks for NASA to analyze, it appears unlikely that any water or ice was kicked up. Over the past few days I've collected some of the most interesting content relating to the mission.
  • @Wired.com: Two separate features on its GeekDad blog on how to observe the impacts, either online or with simple telescopes.
  • @DiscoverMagazine.com: Phil Plait at the Bad Astronomy blog ran down the best ways to keep track of the lunar bombing as it happened. Note the awesome comment section
  • @HuffPo.com: The Huffington Post, despite its often shoddy science reporting, summed up the event nicely. They also embedded video, added graphics and compiled updates over the following days.

I'll leave you with NBC's live coverage (including some trippy infrared filters!) of the moon bombing. Note how utterly dejected Tom Costello is that NASA's satellites couldn't pick up the impact. You'd think a celebrity had just died or something.

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2 comments:

  1. Michel SauretOctober 13, 2009 at 4:51 PM

    I just checked out what the missile path was supposed to look like on the huffington post. That is one long trajectory. It goes around the earth and the moon three times before impact.

    The video above seemed really uneventful. Not sure that I could get excited for this kinda stuff like the guys behind the computers did.

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  2. Clementine DahlingOctober 25, 2009 at 3:06 PM

    Why does shooting a missile at the moon seem like a stupid idea to me? Or, as one blogger posted, isn't there an easier way to find out if there's water on the moon?

    http://www.geekologie.com/2009/06/oh_great_nasa_plans_to_blow_up.php

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