July, 2009
LCROSS, LOR, AND JUPITER
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Two New Lunar Missions Orbiting the Moon for at least one year, LRO will located landing sites, map the surface topography and composition, and study the radiation environment to determine its potential affect on humans. LCROSS’s mission is to confirm the presence or absence of water ice at the Moon’s south pole. The spacecraft will use the spent second stage of the Atlas V to impact one of the pole’s permanently shadowed craters, then analyze the resulting plume of debris for the presence of water. After relaying the data to Earth, LCROSS itself will then impact the same crater, creating a second debris plume.
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LRO spies Apollo 14 Landing Site In mid-July 2009, LROC captured this image of the Apollo 14 landing site. The spacecraft will obtain-higher resolution imagery once it achieves its primary mapping orbit in August. |
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Another Jupiter Impact Exactly 15 years after the first impacts by comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, scientists have found evidence that another object has hit Jupiter. NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility captured this image on July 20, 2009. A new “scar” (arrow) can be seen near Jupiter’s south polar region. It may have been created by another comet, but the identity of the impactor has yet to be determined. Image courtesy of NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Infrared Telescope Facility |
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