With Europe鈥檚 SMART-1 spacecraft now resting in peace on the lunar surface, astronomers are trying to piece together what happened when it hit the Moon on 3 September.
They now think the spacecraft might have skidded over a ridge on top of a mountain, producing a cloud of debris. Studying the event should help researchers understand the physics of impacts, since the probe鈥檚 size and trajectory are already known.
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The European Space Agency鈥檚 SMART-1 probe ended a successful mission to test new technologies and map the Moon when it crashed onto the lunar surface on Sunday morning. It landed in the 鈥淟ake of Excellence鈥�, a volcanic plain in the southwest quarter of the Moon鈥檚 nearside (see ).
At the moment of impact, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, recorded a brief infrared flash. From the CFHT images and the time the probe鈥檚 radio signals cut out, the SMART-1 team has now pinned down the impact latitude and longitude and compared it to relief maps of the Moon. Watch a .
Elongated cloud
That shows the spacecraft, which was travelling at about 7200 kilometres per hour, probably slammed into a mountainside, according to SMART-1 project scientist Bernard Foing.
鈥淭he impact site could be on the ascending slope near the rim of a mountain about 1.8 kilometres above the volcanic plain,鈥� Foing told 快猫短视频.
鈥淚t is possible that some of the ejecta and even the spacecraft have skimmed beyond the rim.鈥�
Meanwhile, ongoing studies of the CFHT images suggest the impact threw up a large elongated cloud of debris, some of which flew across 80 kilometres of ground in only 2 minutes, 10 seconds. Foing says observatories are still monitoring the site to look for a blanket of ejecta that has fallen back down.
Mission scientists have heard reports that some amateur astronomers saw a possible optical flash during the impact as well as a subsequent afterglow. Foing encourages any observers who saw something to submit their findings to his team. 鈥淔or this lunar crash scene investigation, we need all possible Earth witnesses and observational facts,鈥� he says.
