When the European probe SMART-1 impacted the Moon a few days ago, it was unknown at the time whether the impact would kick up a visible dust cloud or not.
Now we know. The animation above is a sequence of images taken by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and clearly shows a plume of dust ejected by the impact. The dust appears to "blow in the wind", but actually what you’re seeing is the dust kicked up and forward by the low angle impact of the spacecraft. Without air, wind is a bit of a problem (unless you think the Moon landings were faked, in which case, feh).
You can see a bigger version here.
Wow. This is way, way cool.
September 6th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Wow. That IS cool! The dust must have been flung pretty far and high by the impact to be detected. I imagine the spacecraft is umm…no longer in a recognizable shape.
September 6th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
Amazing…and very cool.
September 6th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
This is absolutely AMAZING! I’m reminded of a sci-fi novel called “A Fall of Moondust” by Arthur C. Clarke
September 6th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I don’t follow the punny line at the end. Like, if I believed the moonlandings were fake, there would suddenly be wind on the moon.
September 6th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
That word “cool” is being WAY over-used.
My question on cool, is this:
What was the temp of the lunar surface right before Smart One’s impact? Did the temp on the impact spot go up due to the probe slamming into targeted ground? What is the temp of the dust once it left the lunar surface?
By the way—that moving .gif is COOL… :*)
September 6th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
It’s interesting to note that lunar soil particles tend to be little specks of minerals encased within shells of SiO2. This means that SMART-1 didn’t merely kick up some dust- it KICKED GLASS!
September 7th, 2006 at 7:13 am
Wow, right up into the light as they hoped. Amazing navigation.
Thanks so much for bringing stuff like this to our attention!
September 7th, 2006 at 8:54 am
Cr ashes to ashes, dust to dus t,
If the Moon doesn’t shiver, the SMART-1 must!
Ivan. (Wow, nice little animated gif t! — Great work.)
September 7th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Artist’s depiction: (Artist is unnamed)
http://www.space.com/images/060903_smart_illo_02.jpg
Source: NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
September 22nd, 2006 at 5:31 am
The wind created by Lunar conspiracy loons is thewind that
passes via theirposteriors and represents how much their “theories” are worth.
Chip – in answer to your question my guess is that SMART-1 hasbeen reducedtovapor and constitutuent atoms .. but here’s a thought – perhaps parts of the craft itself have been forced down into the lunar regolith and buried. Anyonme know what the chances of that are (guessing prettyy low but y’never know.) and if so to what depth is likely?
So could there be anything left of the probe? Anyone know?