Look Up: What's in the Sky This Week?
Photo courtesy the Newseum.
The Washington, D.C. Examiner.com gets high-marks for two wild posts; first, pontificating with no evidence that it was a test of "Star Wars" technology, and then this offering, which blows up the totally inaccurate information that this was some huge "bombing," then pouts because there was no big, exciting explosion (only adding at the end of the "bomb bomb bomb" tirade: "Keep in mind that the bomb was more an impact than an actual bomb." Indeed, would you?). Cable news stations -- though we give CNN credit for one interview with Our Hero, Bill Nye the Science Guy -- and countless newspapers and web sites all had similar "Moon bombing" stories. But it was the Huffington Post's Amy Ephron we can probably draw all these lines back to. Her article (labeled under "comedy," though it's not clear if that was her designation or her editor's) and call to arms with the creation of a Twitter feed called Help Save the Moon can only be summed up, even as a joke, by this comment: "No wonder our educational system is the laughing stock of much of the civilized world."
All of this led to Full-On Crazy, including a short-lived Twitter trending topic on "Dear NASA," as in, "Dear Nasa, WHAT THE HELL IS WR0NG WITH Y0U?? D0 Y0U N0T N0 THE M00N IS G0D CREATI0N Y0U NEED T00 WATCH IT ((SERI0USLY))." The irony is that all this was happening the same week President Obama gave a passionate speech on the need for science education at the White House Star Party (highly recommended viewing). One would hope that none of this would have happened if it weren't for the deplorable lack of science writers and editors in the mainstream media. Even poor Bill Nye could only explain the the Crazy by throwing his hands up and saying, "Well, it just shows you that I failed."
If you heard the media going on and on about "bombing" the Moon and thought, "What the hell?," I hope you took a second to use our friend Google or ask a science-minded friend about it. One thing about us science geeks: we love it when you ask us questions! We don't expect every person to follow every detail of our space program, but we do expect you to ask before you run off half-cocked with misinformed opinions about it. So while in retrospect, this should have been in last week's column, I now give you:
Eight Facts About LCROSS
1. LCROSS was a mission to discover hydrogen (i.e. water) on the Moon.
2. The night before impact, LCROSS separated into two pieces: the upper stage of a depleted Centaur rocket and the Shepherding Spacecraft. The continued on the same path, but separated quite a few miles before impact.
3. The Centaur rocket hit the Moon first, inside the crater Cabeus near the south pole, kicking up a dust plume. The Shepherding Spacecraft followed about four minutes later, collecting volumes of data regarding the contents of the dust.
4. The rocket was about the size of a school bus and had no fuel. That's right, no explosives were used upon impact on the Moon.
5. The mass of the Moon compared to the mass of the tiny spacecraft is ENORMOUS. It couldn't knock the Moon off its axis and it will in no way affect the tides.
6. You know how we know that aside from basic math? This isn't the first time we've done this. Humans have crash-landed spacecraft into the Moon dozens of times; the first time was by the Russians in 1959. (Yup, the Russians actually beat us to the Moon, but we sent humans there first.)
7. LCROSS was a "low-cost, high-risk" mission, what NASA calls a "Class D." Much of the spacecraft was made by recycling parts from satellites. These types of missions are becoming more and more popular because they can collect quite a bit of data for very little cash.
8. Why this mission? The discovery of high quantities of water will guide the decision to send humans back to the Moon for long-term missions. Not to mention, information about the Moon's make-up helps planetary scientists learn more about how our solar system was formed.
Despite (or more likely, because of) the hand-wringing about the U.S. "bombing the Moon," the LCROSS event became the third highest viewed NASA event ever; at least 200 people (including yours truly) attended the 7 a.m. LCROSS viewing event at the Newseum to watch on the big screen with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. (Side note: while I watch plenty of space events over the internet, there is nothing like experiencing them in a packed room full of eager viewers.) Yes, we were all pretty disappointed that a big visual plume didn't appear on screen, but, with apologies to the sensationalist media, the fact is that science doesn't always come with big booms. In all other respects, the impact was successful, huge amounts of data were collected, and NASA is eagerly reviewing it all.
Okay, now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's talk about all the great star gazing events going on this week:
Tonight: The Northern Virginia Astronomy Club's (NOVAC) monthly meeting is tonight at George Mason University in Lecture Hall 1. The meeting starts at 7 p.m., but you're encouraged to come early for a little socializing. If you decide to join NOVAC, dues are only $25 per year.
Thursday: A little farther away in Columbia, Md., the Howard Astronomy League will have its monthly meeting. This month Charles Quintero from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will talk about the robotic missions on Mars. Starts at 7:30 p.m.; annual membership is $25.
Saturday: Head over to Rock Creek Park for the National Capital Astronomers monthly Exploring the Sky program. Join them for stargazing starting at 7:30 p.m.; they'll be focusing on Andromeda and the Orionid meteors this time.
Also, definitely mark your calendar for NOVAC's 27th Annual Star Gaze, the "largest public star gaze in the Washington D.C. area." Hitch a ride out to C.M. Crockett Park in Fauquier County, Va. for the event; solar observing begins at 3 p.m. and the star party runs until 11 p.m.