LIHU‘E — Night owls and astronomy enthusiasts may want to keep an eye on the moon tonight because around 1:30 a.m. two NASA probes are set to smash onto its surface. “It is predicted that people owning a reasonably good
LIHU‘E — Night owls and astronomy enthusiasts may want to keep an eye on the moon tonight because around 1:30 a.m. two NASA probes are set to smash onto its surface.
“It is predicted that people owning a reasonably good amateur telescope may be able to see a plume from the moon,” University of Hawai‘i astronomy professor Dr. Gareth Wynn-Williams said in an e-mail Thursday.
He confirmed that “just after 1:30 a.m.” viewers might be able to catch a glimpse of the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite event.
The first impact will be of a “hi-tech orbiter” weighing around two tons and traveling some 5,600 miles per hour. It will reportedly send a mass of debris into space. Just a “few minutes later, another, smaller, spacecraft follows suit,” but not before it collects some of the material hurled into space by the primary probe and transmits the data back to Earth, according to an article from the UK’s Guardian.
The reason for the Man on the Moon’s facelift is so scientists can potentially determine whether water exists on the celestial body.
∫ Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
