Even without the immediate reward of a brilliant flash or decisive evidence for water on the Moon, the LCROSS impact promises success.  As the principal investigator put it during the press conference, he expected to be surprised and he was.  No fifth magnitude flare-up or giant plume of moondust, admittedly, but that’s the risk explorers take.

Infrared data suggest that the impact heated surface material enough to produce viable results, so the mission should eventually achieve its primary goals.  If water exists in the basin of Cabeus Crater, its presence should be revealed as scientists study the results of this morning’s impactful experiment.  Such discoveries don’t come without effort, however, and now the real work begins:  analyzing the images and spectra from both the spacecraft and various ground-based observatories, and continued monitoring of the Moon’s tenuous atmosphere to see what changes take place.

More pictures are dribbling in, and the Science in Action team will update the LCROSS story next week when we hope to say more about the mission.  In the meantime, scientists have their work cut out for them!  We look forward to learning about their discoveries when they’re ready to report.

—Ryan

I left my house at 3am this morning and drove to NASA Ames to join a couple hundred others to watch the LCROSS impact. We were bundled up against the cold, but there was excitement in the air. Around 4:30ish, all eyes were glued to the large screen and we saw… something? nothing? It was hard to tell.

As people were packing up—some had been there all night—Ty and Nick (part of the SiA team) called from Mount Diablo.They had camped out all night with a camera and a telescope to capture the action.

“Did you get it?” I asked.

“I think so.” They couldn’t tell either.

I sat in the media tent afterward and that seemed to be the feeling all around– what exactly happened? Where was the plume, the ejecta cloud we were promised?

Spectra shows that something happened. And images are trickling in… stay tuned. We’ll have more for you next week.

-Molly

Gene therapy has proven to cure color blindness in squirrel monkeys— can the same process work for humans?

We’ve been tracking a lot of vision stories lately… What have you found?

 

 Gene Therapy for Color Blindness: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

http://www.vimeo.com/6912029

In early morning hours this coming Friday, the LCROSS spacecraft will impact the moon at twice the speed of a bullet looking for water ice. Science in Action is sending one team to Mt. Diablo to observe the impact and one team to NASA Ames. We’ll have an updated story that day. in the meantime, are you planning on observing the impact? Let us know.

 

 LCROSS - Pre-Impact: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The recent discovery of an ancient flax fiber in a cave in the Republic of Georgia has scientists rethinking when human ancestors started constructing clothing from textiles and not animal skins.

 

 34,000 Year-Old Fiber: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download